by Tim Yingling
The burly man looked from me to Phil and back again. “Have I been talking to the wrong man?”
“Had to get a feel for ya before I engaged,” I said. The burly man gave a slight nod. “But as for taking some things from us, that isn’t going to happen and you know it won’t without a fight.”
“You’ll lose. You do realize that, right?”
I looked around. Yes, his group could take care of us, but they would lose some of theirs as well.
“Okay, let’s think about this for a minute, shall we?”
He motioned with his hand for me to go on.
I pointed at myself first. “Obviously, I am military.” He nodded and I shifted my finger to Kate. “She too is military. Now, I made a promise to see her to a safe spot. This isn’t it. Nor have I found one along the way from South Carolina. These two youngens here” – Ernie and Linny waved at the man – “are her niece and nephew. So, they became my wards as well.”
He motioned with his chin at Phil. “Him?”
“He was someone I found along the way that needed assistance. It turns out he has helped me more than I have helped him. I owe him.”
“And the other woman there.”
I turned to look at Sara. “She’s my ex-wife. I kinda had to bring her along because she won’t let our daughter out of her sight.” I turned back to the man. “You can have her if you want. I don’t give a shit about that.”
“BYRON!” Sara shrieked from behind me.
I could hear Tayvon say softly, “Relax. I think he has a plan here.”
“What did the nigger just say to my new bitch?”
That even hurt me. I’m sure it hurt Tayvon and Sara. They were about to say something until I put my hand up.
“I use to live in this state. I hated it. I spent most of my time up in Michigan because I had more friends there. But hearing you talk like that, and seeing the type of shit you’re pulling here, makes me hate this state even more. All I want to do is get to Cinci so I can see if my brother is still alive or not. Then I want to get to a little town in Indiana to find my current wife and two children. Right now, you are putting a hindrance on my advancement. Personally, I could care less what you do to me, but I will die to protect the people I care about. That does include my ex-wife. So I bring a proposition to you.”
The man breathed deeply. I could have sworn the earth shook because of it. “What is the proposition?”
I unslung my rifle. The audible sound of weapons being raised did not go unnoticed. At least they weren’t trying to be like the action movies where they are just now putting a round in the chambers.
“Now hang on,” I said raising my left arm to show no danger. I used my right arm to put the rifle in the holster on the horse. “My proposition is that you and I fight.”
Laughter accompanied my statement. No laughter came from my group. It was all the men standing around us. It wasn’t the joyous laughter one is used to hearing. It was more sinister and bone cutting. The type of laughter that could hurt a man’s soul if he wasn’t involved in it. The worst one was the leader of the group. The worst part was his piercing eyes. He didn’t take them off me the entire time. There was no emotion in those eyes. They already looked dead. I knew he wasn’t, but the image staring back at me told me that.
“He wants to try to take me on?” he asked through yucks.
I offered my hands to my sides with a slight nod of my head.
“You can’t be serious.”
“I want you to look at my face.” I took two steps forward. I needed the space. “You tell me if I’m serious or not.”
The man shook his head. It wasn’t in disappointment or approval. I couldn’t tell what it was, but he moved forward as well. While doing so, he pulled a knife from a sheath on his left leg.
“I guess it’s going to be your funer –”
The gunshot rang out before he could get the final word finished. I moved quickly to the fallen man. I had to because his men were raising their weapons to fire on us. The round I fired hit its mark. I could see the blood pooling around the man’s mid-arm at the elbow. It was coming out of both ends. The bottom was just flowing while the top sputtered.
I placed my foot on the wound. The spot I fired at would have been hurting, to begin with, but with the added pressure of my foot the man let out a cry of pain. The tears falling from his eyes just added effect for me.
The pistol in my hand went right to his throat. He stared into my eyes and saw something there. I could tell because he looked away before I even told him what to do.
“Lower your weapons, guys,” he said to his men. “I think he just wants to leave.”
I nodded. “You’re correct. All I wanted to do was get past ya’ll. But you just had to push the matter. Next time you know not to mess with someone, don’t you?”
He nodded.
“What I want your men to do is unload their primary weapons and side arms. Then I want them to throw the weapons behind them without looking. That includes their knives if they have any.”
“Do it guys.”
I looked around to see if the men would oblige. To my surprise, they did. Even though they still had the tactical advantage against us, they gave it up in an instant. I can honestly say these men were the dumbest people I ever met. They believed we would be able to fight them off if we had to.
I stood as I said to the man, “Now that we have safe passage out of here, I will let you all live. I don’t do the things that you and your men do. There is too much death in this world for me to want to kill other people.” I pointed at his left elbow. “You would be smart to get that wound looked at. You don’t want to become one of those zombies, do ya?”
As if to emphasize my point, a pained scream came from my right. Everyone looked in that direction to see one of the burly man’s men getting chewed on by a zombie. Three more were behind that one and within two seconds five more emerged.
I mounted my horse and said, “Good luck to you guys.” I turned to Kate. “Lead us out of here.”
Kate took the lead, being followed by Phil, then Tayvon, the kids, Sara, and I brought up the rear. As I turned, I looked behind me. The nine zombies quickly turned into twenty.
Kate led us around the south side of the car barrier and then the eastbound lane. By the time I made it to the road, the number of zombies had double. They were now traveling in packs. A few of them heard the sound of the horses. They tried to move in our direction, but didn’t get far. The cars were working as a good blockade against them.
The burly man did manage to get his feet before the zombies got to him. All but two of his men were still alive by that point. The eight of them ran into the woods. I don’t think I will be seeing them again.
We galloped a good half-mile before Sara decided to jeopardize us again.
She stopped in the road and turned to me, “We have to go back and help those men. You put them in danger and now we have to see that they’re safe.”
Before I could say anything, Kate had already come back to where we were. She pulled her pistol and cocked the hammer back. Sara turned to her but only saw the 9mm.
“I would have to advise you to shut the fuck up, Sara,” Kate said. “Sarge doesn’t want to kill you because of Debbie, but I have wanted to kill you for two days. You are not a solution to anything. But you are a problem. The best way to get rid of a problem is to destroy it.”
“You better get that gun out of my face, bitch,” Sara demanded. Hate radiated off her and Kate.
“Dad, do something.”
I looked into the scared eyes of my daughter. She did fear for her mom’s life. I did want Kate to shoot Sara, so bad. I couldn’t allow it though. Not in front of Debbie.
“I SAID GET THAT FUCKING GUN OUT OF MY FACE!”
Sara made a lunge for Kate. Kate, in turn, was pulling back on the trigger. Luckily for Sara, I moved closer to Kate in the time it took for everyone to figure out what was happening.
I reached over t
o push Kate’s arm in the air. The round sailed into a safe direction. Tayvon was close enough to Sara to make sure she didn’t fall off her horse. Kate turned to look at me while Sara turned to Tayvon. All I did was shake my head.
“You won’t be around all the time, Sarge.” There was fire in her voice. “I will kill her eventually.”
Sara turned back. “What was that, bitch?”
I pointed at her. “That’s fucking enough, god damn it. You have no idea how many times I’ve saved your life from Kate in the last couple of days. She has begged me to let her kill you.”
“Why does she want to kill me so much?”
“Because you continuously jeopardize our safety. You may not realize it, but I have had to jump out of my ass to ensure you don’t give away our positions. Right now, we need to continue moving. We just saw a huge crowd of zombies moving north to south. They came out of the woods because of the shot I fired. Chances are they will move in this direction not only because of the shot Kate fired, which I would like to point out is the closest she has come to killing you, but also because of the horses.”
I looked over her shoulder to the cars blocking the road. She followed my gaze to see the zombies were trying to move in our direction. The other thing I saw was not something that inspired me. She turned to me with fear in her eyes because of the large, black SUV.
I don’t recall ever seeing it before, but there it was. It could be the people from Commerce following us. Or it could be more people for the group of guys coming after us. It didn’t matter. The zombies were finding ways to get around the cars and coming our way. We had time to get away, and I didn’t want to waste any of it. The SUV sitting there wasn’t comforting.
“Let’s get out of here, now,” I said.
Sara nodded and rode past me to the others. I stayed where I was for another minute. I heard the clops of the hooves on the ground grow distant before I moved. I stayed because the herd was thinning on the other side of the cars. Whoever was in the SUV would be able to move soon. It was unfortunate I wouldn’t be able to stick around and see who it was. The zombies were getting closer to me.
I turned to catch up with the group. They were only a quarter of a mile ahead. After a mile, we couldn’t see the zombies anymore. After five miles, the car was already becoming a distant memory. My thoughts had to be on the location of where my brother lived. He decided to move his family into a suburb, the type that one could get lost in if they didn’t know exactly where they were going. I was there only once before and it took a GPS for me to find the place. Even with the GPS I still got lost. It was a new development at the time. The GPS just wasn’t updated.
We still had the entire city to go through before we even got to the suburb anyway. And even then, we still had another twenty miles to get to the city.
Ten miles after the blockade we decided it was a good idea to stop and eat. We moved off the road enough so we wouldn’t be seen by a passing car. I hadn’t heard anything, and neither has anyone else, but there was still that one chance. I don’t like to take chances, of course.
We didn’t want to eat too fast. It had already been a long day. Sara was still fuming about me shooting that man. Kate was still itching to shoot Sara. Both women sat on either side of the picnic area we had inhabited. The kids sat close to Phil and Tayvon. I sat away from everyone else; closer to the road. The tenseness of the situation was killing me. I just wished someone would give, knowing that no one would.
As we were cleaning up, Sara finally broke the verbal silence.
“Can you tell me why we aren’t in a vehicle?”
“Why don’t you just shut the fuck up, Sara?”
“Kate.”
She turned to me. The fire spread over her face, but she subsided anyway.
I turned to Sara. “We don’t have a vehicle for several reasons. First and foremost because they emanate too much noise. They will draw unwanted attention to us. Specifically, the unsavory humans we ran into early today.”
Sara nodded but didn’t say anything. Ernie was the one who asked the next question. It was honestly the first time I had heard him speak out loud to anyone besides his sister since Pennsylvania.
“But couldn’t we get to your family faster if we had a vehicle?”
Of course, the boy had a point. He was still missing the most important points, though.
“Yes, Ernie, we could get there faster if it wasn’t for the other major reason.”
“And that would be?”
It was at this time I noticed everyone had their eyes locked me, except for Kate. She knew my reasoning behind not wanting a vehicle. The six sets of eyes all pleaded with me to change my mind on the car situation. There was no denying it. They didn’t want to be on horses anymore. Couldn’t blame them for wanting a change. Riding the horses was already tiresome, not to mention my nuts were pretty much destroyed after three days of riding. I could only imagine how the females felt.
Still, they stared at me for an answer. I wouldn’t have changed my mind on the matter except for one person. Debbie’s eyes pleaded with me the most. They told me it wasn’t that she wanted to get off the horse, she looked to be loving the ride, but it was more the fact she wanted to get someplace safe. Someplace that didn’t have a sinister meaning behind every corner or curve. Someplace she could rest her head for more than one night. I wanted that place, too. But we still had close to one hundred and eighty miles to go. Maybe snagging a vehicle, perhaps a station wagon or a van would be the best bet for as many people as we have, wouldn’t be a bad idea. Especially with that black SUV lurking somewhere behind us.
“All right,” I began, “how about this? We get to my brother’s house and, if that vehicle doesn’t catch up to us by then, we’ll get some sort of vehicle. Does that sound okay to everyone?”
Nods all around.
“Good. Can we move now? We don’t have that long to go.”
There was no answer to this question either. Simultaneously, everyone mounted their horses and began to move west along the road. I followed up in the rear. I could have led the way, but Sara knew how to get to my brother’s house better than I did; she had been there more often.
My brother had a real problem with the fact Sara and I had gotten a divorce. He liked her more than all the other girls I dated throughout my life, and I have no idea why. It’s the only reason Bobby and I stopped talking in the first place. He didn’t understand the reason why I didn’t want to be married to Sara anymore. He believed her when she told him I left because of another woman. Bobby never doubted that I had cheated on Sara.
Even with the fact I hadn’t talked to him in close to eight years, I still had to find out if he was alive or not. It wasn’t for my sake, or even Sara or Debbie’s, it was for my parent’s sake. They took the fighting between Bobby and me extremely hard. I tried to reconcile, but he wouldn’t have it. He always thought I should leave the little “tramp” and go back to Sara. Even after I married Hannah, he still thought I left Sara for Erin. There was no convincing him otherwise.
It took us no time to see the skyline of the city. We were a lot closer than I thought. As we neared the city we saw more and more wildlife. Phil concluded they were moving in towards the city because they could smell the dead or dying meat in there. Their senses were guiding them towards food. Some of the more vicious animals (bobcats and foxes) took snaps at the smaller folks in our groups, but that’s all it was. They were testing the waters to see if they could get any meat from them. Once the bigger folks became more aggressive those animals took off.
Sara stopped when we were about three miles from the outskirts. The sun was still up, and if I had to guess it was getting close to mid-afternoon. She didn’t want to stop there, but she did have a suggestion.
“If we go through the city we could shave about an hour off our travels. But that way is probably too dangerous with all the animals we’ve seen. The animals that were in the zoo have more than likely gotten out by now and are starving.�
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Phil turned to look at everyone. “I have to concur with Sara’s assessment. I think it would be best to stay outside the city for now.”
“That settle’s it,” Tayvon said. “Take us on the outside to get to Bobby’s house.”
I didn’t answer. I only nodded and followed.
I didn’t want to alarm anyone, but I heard a vehicle behind us. And it was getting closer. If we took the outskirts of the city we may have been able to lose them in the hustle and bustle of the suburbs. That’s what I wanted. We could handle the animals in the city, human and non-human alike, but I still felt hesitant about the SUV.
Sara guided us easily. I don’t even recall how she got us through everything, but she did it. At one point we’re traveling through a nice neighborhood and then all of a sudden we were crossing a freeway and jumping into an even nicer neighborhood. You could tell the difference from one area to another just by the way the grass was cut, or even the color. We went through four different neighborhoods before I started to recognize a few of the names of the streets. They were coming back to me from when I looked at a map trying to find my brother’s house.
And then I got an idea.
I spotted a park a block up ahead of where we were. I took the lead as quick as I could and guided the group into it. The park offered a small orchard of trees I went straight for. The confused looks on everyone’s face was not satisfying.
“What are we doing?” Sara asked. For once, there was no anger in her voice. She was honestly questioning what I was doing.
“I have a gut feeling that the guys in the black SUV are around here somewhere.”
Kate cut in. “If they’re in this neighborhood, then chances are they know who you and/or Sara are. By that logic, they may know where your brother lives then.”
Sara shook her head. “No, that’s not possible.”
I scratched my nose as I said, “Actually, it is.” My hand fell back to the butt of my pistol. “Think about it for a minute. I ran into someone I knew from when I lived in Commerce. That person obviously didn’t like me then and most likely even less now.”