Zournal: Book 3: Scorched Earth

by R. S. Merritt

  Bullets were hitting all around us and looking back at the Bass Pro Shop was like looking at a swarm of steroid addicted fireflies. Bright flashes of light lit up the whole store as the place came alive with the enemy. I saw a set of headlights pull out of the road behind us and start coming for us. I had no idea how we were going to pick up Ginny and Thomas. I got to the edge of the trees and I just slammed on the brakes. I yelled for Thomas as loudly as I could, with very little hope it would do anything. Thomas and Ginny came running out of the wood line.

  Nice. Now to do something about the cars tearing towards us. I had about ten seconds to figure out a solution. I yelled at Ann and Reeves to get out of the van and help Ginny and Thomas. The both jumped out and started running towards Ginny and Thomas then turned around and stared at the van as I slammed the van into reverse and floored it. This was probably going to hurt a lot.

  I hurdled backwards at the two large armored cars on the overpass. I turned right to aim at the lead car better and almost flipped the van over. The lead driver figured out there was a van hurdling at him and tried to cut hard to the right, at full speed, in a top-heavy jeep with a mounted gun turret on it. His car flipped over on its side. It went flying by me on its side with sparks flying everywhere. The other driver did not have time to react and hit the back of the van square on.

  I woke up tied to the back of a four-wheeler. Actually, I woke up horrified that the ground was flying by about a foot from my face and my entire body was constricted in a weird shape. I hurt all over. Screaming in terror got the attention of Ann, who it turned out was driving me and Ginny. She looked down at me and smiled.

  “All good?” She yelled.

  “Fantastic!” I yelled up at her.

  She swerved hard to miss something and it felt like someone shoved a hot poker though the back of my neck. The pain made me blackout again.

  I woke up again and this time didn’t manfully yell to get the drivers attention. I hurt everywhere. I really hoped we were close to the cabin. What I wanted out of life was a bag of painkillers to be washed down with a bottle of tequila followed by more pain killers. My whole body felt broke. It was pitch black so at least I couldn’t see how close my head was probably coming to colliding with the ground or cars or whatever as we continued speeding along.

  I was in hell. Then we ran out of gas. Ann asked if I thought I could walk. I couldn’t think of anything sarcastic enough to say so I just stood up and blacked out again.

  I woke up sitting in the back of a car laid out across Ann and Thomas. As soon as I woke up Ann handed me some pills. I took them and looked at her for a bottled water. She shook her head and I dry swallowed the pills. The service is really starting to go downhill in our little apocalypse group.

  “Where are we?” I asked around the pills. Hoping she had given me the good stuff. I was in serious need of the good stuff.

  “We think we’re outside your parent’s cabin. We’re in a car we found. We’ve got about ten minutes before the Koreans hopefully get vaporized. Reeves is trying to figure out how to get us in the cabin.”

  “The raccoon’s crotch.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Tell Reeves to check in between the raccoon’s legs and there should be a button and if you press it the keys fall out.”

  Ann stared at me for a minute. Then she leaned out the window and motioned Reeves over and told him where to check. Reeves said thanks and went to get the door open.

  I started laughing like a madman.

  Ann asked if I was Ok. I was struggling to sit up but was in too much pain.

  Ann sighed, “There’s no key is there?” She asked.

  In between trying to breathe, I told her there was one under the paving stone right next to the welcome mat. Then I lay there in pain. Occasionally laughing to myself as I imagined Reeves groping the raccoon and staring at its crotch trying to figure out how to get the key out. I figured the whole apocalypse had been building towards this one moment and it may have actually been worth it.

  Reeves came out to the car and helped get me out and started limping me towards the cabin. We were all painfully aware that no one had come to the door to greet us. I’d gone from frivolity to solemnity in the first steps towards the cabin. Reeves had opened the door already but he had not said anything to me about what may be inside. He helped me up the steps to my childhood escape. Onto the porch I had pretended was Davy Crockets lookout post. My mind trying to focus on anything but my parents.

  They weren’t here. I had known the odds were long against it but had held out a small amount of hope. We got inside and Reeves laid me out on the couch. I stared steadfastly at the fireplace, it actually required you to put wood in it and start a fire versus pressing a button to watch a fake propane fire. The fake fire was a lot better for rental insurance but my parents had just never gotten around to it. They probably never would now.

  “We’ve got company coming up the road. Everybody stay down and quiet.” Ann moved back from the window as she was saying it.

  “What do you see?” I asked.

  “Just some Zombies finally catching up to us. I’m hoping the fireworks show coming up get them to go the other way and we don’t have to deal with them.”

  “What about the Koreans who were chasing us?” I asked.

  “Well, your dumb ass maneuver probably saved our lives. Thomas and Ginny had us on the four-wheelers and headed for you about twenty seconds after you hit reverse. We got up there and pulled you out of the van and put some extra bullets into the other vehicles. You managed to block the road pretty good but Reeves went ahead and stabbed the gas tank with his knife and lit up the gas puddle. The whole thing went up as we were driving off. We’re thinking between the road being blocked off and the Zombies attracted by all the noise we made in the fight that kept the Koreans back enough where they didn’t have time to catch us.”

  “That makes sense. What happened to you? They didn’t hurt you or anything, did they?”

  “I’m fine. They didn’t really have time to mistreat me. I drove right into a random ambush. I think they were looking for somebody else but they went ahead and grabbed me. None of them spoke any English but I got the idea that I was going to be shipped back for breeding stock. Any way. They didn’t touch me except to beat me if that’s what you’re trying to ask?”

  I fumbled for an answer.

  “Thanks for caring and for asking.” She kissed me on the forehead as we started hearing muffled thumps off in the distance. Reeves had wandered out onto the porch and he gave us a play by play of what he was seeing.

  “Big ass bombs getting dropped all around where the Pro Shop was. Good thing we got the hell out of there. They’re also bombing some stuff a little closer to us. I think they may be taking out bridges and roads. Not sure what they’re doing exactly though. Either way, I don’t think any Koreans left alive by the morning are going to be wasting a lot of time looking for us.”

  Ann walked over to the other window in the front of the house and looked out.

  “All the Zombies have wandered off. Assuming towards the bombs.”

  I closed my eyes for a second…

  Entry 36: You Can’t Go Home Again

  I woke up and Ann was sitting in the easy chair in the corner. It was morning. I’d slept through a couple of nearby cities getting bombarded.

  “How are you feeling?” She asked.

  “Like hell. How about you?”

  She looked uncharacteristically serious and somber. She walked over and sat down on the couch with me and held my hand. She had an envelope with her. I looked at the envelope. My name was written on it in the large block letters my dad used to write everything. A habit left over from writing in log books.

  The envelope was not sealed.

  “Did you read this?” I asked. Speaking carefully to get around the lump forming in my throat.

  “No.”

  “Then why do you look so sad?” I asked her.

  She just squeez
ed my hand and a tear rolled down her face. She was trying to be strong. Hell, I knew she was strong. She had nothing to prove, she was trying to be strong for me.

  “You should see what the letter says first. I can leave, if you want to be alone.”

  “No. I want you here with me.”

  I pulled the letter out. It was on a single sheet of plain white typing paper. It was dated about a week after everything had started. About the same time, I had been deciding to come up here and check on them. A lost boy wanting to come have his mom and dad take care of him.

  The letter was short and to the point.

  My Son,

  I pray this letter finds you well. I hope you’ve managed to beat your way through this mess. If you have then you will understand what happened here. Your mom was bringing supplies to the neighbors and was attacked. Your mom got sick, then she turned. I put her to rest out back in the field by the flower bed where she kept trying to grow roses.

  She loved you more than anything. I love you. I pray to god you’re reading this and you managed to make it up here and that you make it through this mess. Your mom attacked me and I am starting to feel sick as well. I’m going to go put down the neighbors who attacked her then take care of myself before I turn into one of them.

  It was signed with love. I read it again, then I handed it to Ann so she could read it.

  “Can you help me go look at her grave?” I asked Ann. Doing my best not to let the words catch in my throat.

  Ann disappeared for a second, coming back with Reeves. The two of them were able to help me up and take me to the back porch where they helped me settle down into a chair. My body hurt but I barely felt it. I felt like my heart was breaking. Sadness settled around me like a cloak.

  I looked down into the field and saw the grave marker. It was surrounded by the prettiest roses I’ve ever seen. They were in full bloom.

  Everything else was dead or dying, like it should be in the winter. It may not have been a huge miracle but it was enough for me. I felt a strength and resolve settle over me. I was going to make it out the other end of this and I was going to drag my friends through it with me. We were going to survive, even if it killed us.

  Entry 37: Stocking Up

  Thomas and Ginny were waiting in the cabin once we went back in. They both gave me a hug and told me they were sorry. I appreciated that I had them all here with me. I tried to picture the scenario if I had just managed to drive straight to the cabin and had to deal with this without Ann and the others to lean on. It was a lot better with them here. I told them all that and how much I appreciated them being here. Then before it could get too weird and turn into a Lifetime Movie or something, I asked about supplies.

  Reeves spoke up, “We basically brought nothing with us, other than what we had strapped to us. We went through a lot of the ammo getting here. We still have a decent amount for fighting Zombies but probably not enough for a firefight with the Koreans or any crazed hillbilly types. There’s a lot of stuff here in the cabin. Looks like your mom and dad were always good to be able to survive here in style, for at least a month or so if there was a blizzard that hit all of a sudden and trapped them here. Also, there’s a nice big locked gun rack below. It has some hunting rifles on display but it’s locked so I have not dug through it yet. I was hoping you had the combo so I wouldn’t have to break the glass.”

  “I know the combo, it’s going to be hunting rifles, some knives and a few pistols. My dad liked his weapons. That will help us out. Food is what I’m mostly worried about. We’re on a well here, so water should not be an issue. There’s also a big stack of firewood out back and we can always snag more from the other cabins. We should make a supply run into town and hit one of the stores.” I looked around waiting for someone else to jump in. This is how our planning sessions normally went. We may not be the Joint Chiefs of Staff planning out an operation but we did come up with plans. As far as I knew the Joint Chiefs of Staff were dead by now anyway so we win.

  “Is there a supermarket down there?” Ann asked.

  “Assuming it has not been looted there should be one about an eight-minute drive from us. Just down the mountain, along the road until we hit the main road, cross the main road and it is in that plaza right there. There is also a ton of gift shops and restaurants. Those should have supplies in them too.” Saying the phrase ‘ton of gift shops’ made me think of something else. “Originally we were going to throw all this stuff in the back of the Penske to take up the mountain. Not sure how much we ‘ll be able to shove in that POS four-door you’ve got parked out there.”

  “We should wait for nightfall and hike in.” That was Reeves talking. “If we keep driving around here we’re going to attract some unwanted attention. Either from any Koreans who survived the bombing, crazy hillbillies, or the Zombies. I say I go out tonight and scout it out, I’ll see if the store has food left and try to find a big truck or something we can use to haul everything back here in one trip. We could even park it a half mile or so from here and just carry it slowly over. Unless you guys have important stuff on your calendars or something. I’m thinking slow and steady versus fast and dead.”

  Reeves was right. I’d learned at the beginning of all this that recon was a huge part of the success of any operation. Of course, last time we sent someone out to do recon we lost her then almost died trying to get her back.

  Our options were limited on who we could send with him though. Reeves was pretty beat down but the rest of us were very beat down. I’d say I was currently the worse off after reversing the van into the large war machines accelerating full speed at us on that bridge. Ann had just been taken hostage and beaten for a day. Thomas, well, I wasn’t sure anymore how many times his arm had been broken and reset. Ginny was the only one who was reasonably fit to go with him. She also happened to be the best shot we had and the best in the woods.

  “Ok Reeves, that makes sense, but you’re not going by yourself. I think Ginny should go to watch your back and keep you from doing anything overtly stupid.”

  “No way I keep him from being stupid. That’s a DNA thing for him.” Ginny jumped in on that nice and quick. “I’m good to go tonight. I’m actually going to go see if I can get the shower to work and then settle in for a nap before we have to head out.” With no more fanfare, she left.

  “I guess that’s settled then.” Reeves said. “I’m going to try and get a nap in before we head out to. Funny, a year ago I would have argued like crazy not to let her come with me. Now, pretty much everywhere seems dangerous and she knows what she’s doing. I trust her more than I would have trusted any of the ‘professional’ soldiers I used to go on patrol with. Anyway, I’m sorry about your parents. Good night.”

  Reeves walked out. Leaving Ann, Thomas, and me to sit in the living room. Ann checked our bandages, cleaned us up, and gave us more pills. I maneuvered around on the couch to try and get comfortable. Reflecting on what Reeves had said and how much the world had changed in less than a year. I was going to ask Ann what her thoughts were but the pills and my physical state combined to put me into a deep sleep within minutes of situating my aching body on the couch.

  Entry 38: Field Trip

  Reeves woke me up as dusk was settling over the mountain. My body was stiff and pained. Moving my neck to look up at Reeves took a lot of willpower not to yell out in pain. When I finally made eye contact with him, he was grinning, although his eyes gave away his concern. I must look like complete crap if he looked concerned about me.

  “Hey boss, you may want to lay off the reversing into military vehicles at full speed thing for a while. Doesn’t look like it agrees with you. About the gun cabinet downstairs, can you rattle me off the combo. I want to go dig through it and see if there’s anything that may make this scouting mission easier.”

  “Seven, one, nineteen. Memorize it, that way you’ll also know when to get me a birthday present.”

  “Silly boss, like we’re going to live all the way to next summer!
” Reeves headed towards the stairs to go check out my dad’s arsenal.

  “Hey! If you see a knife in there with an antler made into the grip on the blade bring that up for me. I need a new handgun and something to replace my sword anyway if anything looks good.” I had not realized until right now that I’d lost my sword in all the excitement. That really sucked as I’d gotten used to using it to bash in Zombie skulls. The handle had been rattling and the blade was starting to get loose on it anyway so no big deal. I’d just need to find a new one. The way my body felt I didn’t relish the thought of having to swing heavy objects around anytime soon anyway.

  “Antler-knife and stuff to kill things with. Got it boss.”