by Chesla, Gary
They laughed.
Megan, Lisa and Lilly came into the room to show the guys what they had found. They were all dressed in clean jeans and shirts.
“Wow, Lilly, you like nice.” Shaun said as he saw Lilly walk in wearing clean tan jeans and a sweatshirt. Lilly smiled.
Megan stuck her finger in Shaun’s ribs. “Maybe you should tell your wife how good she looks first before you start flirting with the other girls?” Megan laughed. “Lilly does look very nice, doesn’t she?”
“I haven’t had anything different to wear for six months.” Lilly exclaimed. They could see the excitement on her face.
“Did you put some extra things in you packs?” Shaun asked. The girls all smiled. “I guess I didn’t need to ask that question.” Shaun laughed.
“I thought Bill said there weren’t any clothes left in town?” Megan asked.
“I guess they missed this place.” Shaun answered. “Let’s go down stairs and see if there is anything else here they missed.”
They carefully walked down stairs, checking to be sure it was safe as they worked their way down the steps.
“The place doesn’t look like it was trashed too badly.” Shaun said as he looked around the inside of the house.
Megan walked over and started to open the pantry door and stopped when she had it half open. “I can’t believe this!”
Shaun ran over to see what she was looking at. He stared.
“What is it?” Doug asked from across the room.
“Come look at this!” Shaun said as Doug, Lisa and Lilly walked over and stood behind him.
“Holy shit!” Doug exclaimed. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to swear, but I haven’t seen this much food since we were in my storage room.”
“There’s not that much.” Shaun laughed. “But there is enough in here for us to live for a couple of weeks.”
Megan reached in the pantry and smiled as she held up a box of twisty pasta.
The pantry consisted of six deep shelves. The shelves were filled with pasta, soup and bean cans, boxes of crackers, ketchup, sugar and more.
Shaun stood and stared as he thought. “I have an idea, but we need to go out and check a few more houses.”
What’s your idea?” Doug asked.
“Girl’s watch us from the window. Doug and I are going to go across the street.” Shaun said.
“No!” Megan replied.
“I know.” Shaun smiled. “Close up the pantry and follow me.”
They carefully studied the street, then walked across and up onto the porch of the house directly across the street.
Shaun looked around and then led them into the house.
After checking the inside of the house, Shaun walked into the kitchen and opened the closet. They all stared again at all the food that was here.
Megan walked over and opened the refrigerator, but quickly closed the door as the smell coming from the refrigerator was even worse than the smell that hung in the air today. “The frig is almost full. All spoiled, but still almost full.”
“Let’s check out one more place.” Shaun said as he led the group outside and over to the next house. They went directly to the kitchen and checked the cupboards and pantry.
“Will you tell me what your idea is now?” Megan asked.
“I think one of two things happened here.” Shaun said.
“They either missed this street when they searched the town for food and supplies.”
“Or?” Megan said waiting for Shaun to continue.
“Or, they never bothered to do much searching.” Shaun added.
“But why would you say they didn’t bother to do much searching?” Doug asked.
“I just have a feeling. Look at these houses? They haven’t been trashed too badly. Not like the houses we saw down near home, or what used to be our home down at Derry and Latrobe.” Shaun looked at the others. “Maybe they searched part of the town when they first set up in the fort. Maybe just the areas down around Route 30? The grocery stores like Giant Eagle. We saw how everything in the store had been dragged out in the parking lot and rummaged through. It would have taken a lot of guys to make that mess.”
Shaun thought quietly for a few minutes. “The town’s people started to go to the fort for protection soon after the dead started coming through town. They left everything and just ran to the fort. With Bill’s solution to the population problem, they didn’t have to go out searching for food anymore. The more people that came in, the less Bill had to worry about food. They just stayed protected in the fort and got lazy. They didn’t bother sending anyone out to search the town anymore. They probably found everything else they needed with in the first few streets around the fort. They just stayed in the fort mostly, well fed and content. Between the people killed by the first wave of the dead, then those that went to the fort, what was in Ligonier should pretty much still be here.”
“Gross!” Megan sighed.
“What about all the trash and crap blowing around the streets, the broken windows, abandoned cars with smashed bloody seats and windows?” Doug asked.
“I think the dead came through, either from somewhere else or whatever caused all of this affected the people here and they started attacking each other. I’m not saying Ligonier escaped what happened everywhere else. I just think when it happened here, the living ran to the fort. The dead followed, but the people in the fort started killing them off. Most of what happened in Ligonier happened down at the fort. The damage we see here in town was mostly caused by the living fleeing to the fort. The rest was caused by those dead bastards banging into things making their way to the fort after the living. There weren’t many people ransacking the houses in town once they made it to the fort.” Shaun explained.
“What about all the dead?” Megan asked.
“Bill said most of the dead around here came down the valley following Route 30. He said very few came from the mountains on the other side of town. Any that came down Route 30 would have been drawn to all the people at the fort. Bill said their goal was to kill all the dead they saw. I think maybe they did a fair job of doing just that and actually that spared the town from being totally destroyed by the dead.” Shaun explained.
“So, maybe the fort actually did save the town?” Doug replied.
“The town, maybe? But not the people.” Megan said softly.
“If not for Bear and the Bikers, Bill’s tactics might have actually one day, after the dead finally died out, would have made the town livable again someday.” Doug said.
“But who would have been left to live here?” Shaun asked. “Just Bill and a few of his buddies?”
“If he wouldn’t have been such a monster and if the bikers wouldn’t have come around, Bill might have had the perfect place to have actually created a little safe zone that could have survived.” Doug said.
“If, If, If!” Shaun said. “With all the dead out there, who knows? A large horde of the dead could have swept it all away, even if he would have been a decent man and actually tried to help the others instead of just thinking about himself.”
“Talking about Bill and the others, do you think anyone survived?” Doug asked.
“I don’t know. That’s what I was thinking we should do next, go down near the fort and take a look.” Shaun answered.
“Do you think it’s safe?” Lisa asked.
“I don’t know, but I think we need to see what happen before we can figure out what we should do. We need to know if any of those bikers could still be around. If Bill made it out of there, it would be just as bad.” Shaun said. “Let’s see if we can get close enough for a look.”
They walked back towards the fort, staying close to the houses for cover. They saw the smoke still rising into the sky as the got closer.
They passed the houses where the tunnel had come up. They edged closer to the front of the houses to look across the street and the field at the fort.
They all stood and stared quietly.
The outer walls
had burned completely to the ground, leaving a pile of ashes that traced around the field where the walls had once stood. Where the cottages once stood were piles of ash. Two posts sticking in the air was all that was left where one of the catapults had stood.
The main inner fort fared a little better, but not by much. All that remained was the front part of the inner wall, minus the gate. Charred bodies could be seen covering the grounds that had once been protected by the fort walls.
Numerous partially charred bodies laid on the fort road that had once led from the front gate to the gate at the inner fort. Arrow protruded from the bodies, many wore what had been leather jackets. Scorched bones were everywhere. Bones, what remained of the dead after what flesh they had left burned away, littered every area of the outer and inner forts. The smoldering remains led out through where the front gate had been and left a trail down towards Route 30.
“I don’t think we have to worry about Bill or the bikers. Anyone that might have had a chance to survive the fire would have never survived the dead.” Shaun said.
“There has to be thousands of the dead smoldering down there.” Doug added.
“I think the fire attracted all the dead. When the gates fell, the dead flooded into the fort. They killed anyone left alive, then they were destroyed by the fire. I don’t think anything dead or alive walked away from this.
Shaun said quietly.
“What do we do now?” Doug asked.
“I woke up this morning thinking about that.” Shaun said. “That is before the smoke made me start coughing.”
“I wish we could just stay in one place for a while. I liked that part about the fort.” Megan sighed.
“With what we’ve seen this morning, I think we could probably stay around here for a while.” Shaun said.
Doug looked at Shaun as if to say go on.
“”Like I said before, I think most of the town has been pretty much left alone. We could probably find enough food around here to live for a year, if I’m right. We would have to spend a little time searching the town to be sure, but I think I’m right. We could probably find enough stuff at a hardware store to secure a place and make a go of it here.
“What about the dead or more gangs?” Megan asked.
“Bill said very few dead come from the other side of town. I say we go out that way. We could fine a decent place isolated from town or any roads that anyone could walk right up to us. We could find the tools and materials we would need to make it secure like we did our house in Derry. We could start hauling all the food we can find in town out to our new place. We could probably build up quite a stash before any of the dead came around. Hopefully any of the dead that do come out the valley will just keep following Route 30 if we don’t give them any reason to come out our way.
If we make sure we find an isolated spot that no one would be likely to wonder by and find us, we get enough supplies out of town before anything else happens, who knows how long we make it here?” Shaun smiled. “We could learn to hunt in the hills. If we think about what we have learned the last six months and do this right, who knows? We could be here for years!”
“Or maybe a few days until something else happens?” Megan smiled sadly.
“Or maybe for just a few days?” Shaun repeated. “What do you say? You think it is worth a try?”
“It would be nice to stay in one place for a while.” Megan grinned. “And as long as we get far away from the fort so we don’t have to think about it anymore.”
“It sounds better than any ideas I can think of.” Doug smiled.
“Can I stay with you?” Lilly asked looking unsure of what was going to happen to her.
Shaun and Megan walked over and hugged Lilly. “You’re part of the family now and you can stay with us as long as you want.” Shaun smiled.
“Shaun was hoping we would find more people to talk to if we came to Ligonier.” Megan laughed. “Lilly, I guess you’re it!”
Lilly smiled. A big smile spread across her face.
“I think we should get started finding our new home.” Shaun smiled at everyone.
“I would like to find a place with an apple tree in the back yard.” Megan added.
Lisa smiled. “Maybe we could find a house with a pool?”
Shaun laughed. “Let’s start with a house with windows and a door, first.”
They all moved away from the remains of the fort and walked back to the house where they had spent the night. They loaded up as many bags and boxes as they could carry, with the food from the pantry.
They even managed to find a little propane camp stove on the porch with at least enough propane for one hot meal of twisties.
They started walking through town, on their journey to find a new place to call home.
They had a plan and that made them feel hopeful.
They all knew it could all come to an end at any time. In another year, another month or in another minute. It could all be over before they reached the end of the next street.
That was the way their world was now. They knew that. They didn’t like it, but they accepted it as the way life was now.
They walked on.
Something about their plan felt right. It made them feel good about being together.
The town felt good. It didn’t have that eerie feeling they had been used to feeling when they went in to other towns to search for food and supplies.
Megan smiled up at Shaun as she affectionately bumped into him as they walked carrying their boxes of food.
Lilly walked along side of them, happy to be with the people that had saved her life, the people that had offered her a new family and a new chance to survive.
Lisa and Doug smiled. Lisa was happy to know what was going on. Living at the fort had been a little overwhelming for her.
They walked
Their journey to the fort to find a Safe Zone, turned out to be anything but safe.
From what they had seen and experienced over the last six months, they knew in their hearts that they would never find a safe place out in what the world had become.
But they walked on with smiles on their faces.
Maybe with a little luck, they would find a way to make their own safe zone.