Reeves disappeared out of site and I closed my eyes and tried to get some more rest. About five seconds later Ginny came wandering in and asked where Reeves went. I told her he was downstairs raiding the arsenal. She said thanks and headed that way. Ann and Thomas were both faking sleep as well evidently since they got up and went after them too. I felt a little left out but wasn’t planning on complaining too much about getting left to relax on a nice couch for a while.
I found out later that when they came back up I was already snoring. We argued briefly about that part of their story as I was pretty sure I did not snore. That lead to an unproductive conversation about what everyone’s sleep number was so we killed it quickly. Reeves and Ginny had stocked up on chem lights, ammo for the high caliber hunting rifles in the gun cabinet, a couple of very nice hunting rifles, and shoved some more knives into various pockets and onto belts.
Once they had all there supplies together, including small day packs full of food and water, they had headed out down the road to go see what they could see. The walk was uneventful at first. It was night time and they were being quiet as they walked so any Zombies sleeping in the trees and brush around them just kept on sleeping. They had to do down a dip in the terrain and then up again before descending down the side of the mountain into the valley below that was Pigeon Forge, TN.
Reeves said he started to get a weird feeling about the town about halfway down the mountain. Ginny said the only feeling she had was the one where she should have brought a heavy coat instead of the hoody she was wearing. It was rapidly approaching the official start of Winter which meant it was getting cold! We had managed to spend most of the summer miserable in Florida, only to make it to the mountains as it was turning deathly cold. Maybe the reason we were alive still, is even the Zombies were trying to avoid the extreme temperatures we seemed to be screwing ourselves over with repeatedly.
Regardless, the closer Reeves and Ginny got to town the stronger the feeling both of them had that something weird was going on. Weird in a bad way. It wasn’t until they were walking down the street leading to the main drag that they figured out what it was. The piles on the side of the road were Zombies.
There were a lot of piles. There were a lot of Zombies. Typically, at night the Zombies kind of disappeared under buildings, into buildings, into the woods, and disappeared out of site for the most part at night. Not this time, according to Reeves and Ginny there were a zillion Zombies and they were all over the damn place. They had ventured out on the main street to try and see what was going on the in the Publix plaza but the piles had gotten too thick and there were too many Zombies laying around for them to risk it.
Without accomplishing much more than verifying that driving a vehicle down the street would be suicide they had made the trek back to the cabin. Upon arrival, they had briefed Ann and once I woke up they’d told me what was going on as well. I assumed Ginny told Thomas all about it too.
The going hypothesis was that the bomb runs had caused enough noise to get Zombies running towards them from a hundred-mile radius. It only had to really a get few running this way and the rest would just follow. The Zombies seemed to assume that if someone was yelling and grunting loudly then they were the kind of person you wanted to follow. This had led to Pigeon Forge and probably all the other nearby towns to being overcrowded with Zombies trying to figure out here the big boom noise had come from. Most of the transitory Zombies had just collapsed into piles for warmth since there were so many of them the standard nesting spots were all at full capacity.
This had some major implications for us. The most obvious one being if we made a noise, shot a gun, started an engine, or anything along those lines we’d probably be swarmed and die within thirty minutes. There were simply too many of them around to play. Best case scenario, all the Zombies would get bored and wander into another town. I’d be happy, for right now, if they’d just disperse enough to let us do some looting.
We couldn’t afford to skip going into town. Zombies or not, if we didn’t get some supplies moved in here fairly soon we were not going to make it. We needed food and medicine. Enough of it to last us from the first snowfall until the last snow had melted off would be ideal. There were five of us. If the snows lasted three months that was ninety days. If we each ate two cans of food per day for ninety days that was nine-hundred cans of food. No way we were going to hump that many cans of food from the Publix to the cabin before it snowed. If we tried using a truck or something, then the Zombies would swarm and kill us. Most of the scenarios I was running through in my head ended with ‘the Zombies would swarm and kill us’.
I racked my brain trying to think if there were anywhere else we could get supplies besides in town. The only thing that came to mind was Dollywood. The theme park had lots of restaurants and snack stands and shops. Thinking back, they even had other stuff that may prove more useful, like blacksmith stations and pottery places and quilting and all that old timey craft crap. Assuming they locked up tight when everyone started getting sick, there may not even be many Zombies wandering around the place.
I had pictured us wintered at my parent’s cabin. Fireplace roaring while we dined on ample supplies raided from the local Publix. Snow keeping us stuck in the cabin all winter, but also keeping the things that wanted to kill us from being able to come get us. The more I thought about the Dollywood idea the more excited I got. I could imagine scenarios there that did not end with Zombies swarming and killing us. It could absolutely happen, but living another day was no longer a given in this new normal no matter where you stayed. Staying in the cabin with no food, over a long winter, brought to mind scenes from the Shining. Possibly scenes from the shining mixed in with scenes from the Donner Party.
In my mind’s eye, I saw us finding the staff cabins and staying there for the winter. Looting the massive warehouses full of food and drinks to have a very enjoyable summer. I couldn’t remember if they sold beer at Dollywood or not but I was thinking keeping Reeves away from the sauce was probably a good idea anyway. I looked sadly around the cabin I had spent so many youthful days around. Loving it in my preteen days then being sulky and solemn in my teens. Probably not the first time this has ever been written down, teens are stupid and waste way too much time being sulky. I’d kill to have that time back now.
I didn’t feel a huge attachment to the cabin. Once I was able to walk I didn’t think it would be a big deal to leave. Now that my parents were gone, the place didn’t really feel like home anymore. It was just a decent cabin at the end of a long mountain road. The part that would hurt to walk away from would be the rose bush my mom was going to rest under for eternity. I also was going to need to figure out how to get buy-in from everybody else.
“You guys want to go hang out at Dollywood and try to make a go of it there?”
“Sure boss, we need to go somewhere with food and protection. That place has all kinds of stuff in it so could work out really well.” Reeves began pacing after he finished talking.
“We’ll need to scout it out and it’s a pretty good hike from here. How are we going to handle that? I’m thinking we all go together at night and try and stick close to the woods and side roads to get there. We’ll need to find somewhere to crash during the day. We can’t risk being seen by any Zombies since any noise is going to bring down a lot of Zombies.” Like normal, Ginny’s response made sense and helped us all start forming plans in our minds. I looked over at Ann to see what she thought about the plan.
She looked like she’d taken a big swallow of milk and felt something lumpy go down her throat. This was going to get complicated. She was probably going to try and bring reality into my scheme. Annoying.
We all quieted down and stared at her.
“So. The idea is to leave the safe cabin we’ve been working our way towards for almost a year, sneak our way about ten miles through a Zombie infested city, and hide out at Dollywood for a while?”
Pretty much. Everyone sort of shrugged. Reeves rose t
o the challenge.
“If we stay here, we’re either going to starve to death or if a troop of Zombies does show up we have limited options on where we can go. I don’t know if Dollywood is going to be a great idea but it seems like the best option based on where we are. Getting there is going to be dicey though. We have enough food for a couple of days so we don’t have to make a decision right now. Unless it starts snowing. Then we’re pretty much screwed.”
It was cold outside. Up here in the mountains it got cold a lot sooner than everywhere else. I didn’t think it was necessarily going to snow anytime soon but I hadn’t been majoring in meteorology. Even if I had, based on watching the weather report, those guys were wrong more than they were right anyway. I didn’t want to bring up my personal main concern. Luckily, Ann did it for me.
“We going to carry Steve or leave him here? He can barely stand up; you really think he’s in shape to go traipsing all over Pigeon Forge and riding the Loop De Loops at the Red Neck Disney?”
Reeves wasn’t fazed. “This was Steve’s idea. I’m assuming he’s got some kind of plan for getting his gimpy ass from here to there.”
Now everybody was staring at me. Awkward.
“Honestly, I was just laying here trying to think of a scenario that didn’t end with all of us being dead. The only thing that popped in my head was Dollywood as an option. True, I can’t currently do some things that would be useful, like walk and stuff, but I’m hoping the pain goes away and I’m able to get mobile in a few days or so. Motion is life, I don’t see myself as having much choice. Worse case, we can find a wheelchair and Reeves can wheel me there.”
“Why do I have to push you?”
“Because I said so. Anyway, let’s give it a day or two. It’s not like the rest of you guys are in terrific shape either. A couple days of rest probably won’t kill us.”
Entry 39: I Walk Through the Valley in the Shadow of Death
I should be lying in bed watching movies on the DVR. I should have a lawyer working to get me a nice fat check from the insurance company. I should be wearing a neck brace and getting a friend to come pick me up and drive me to physical therapy.
That’s not how it worked anymore. We rested for three days. We had planned to give it five days before attempting the trek. On the third day, it started snowing. It wasn’t a blizzard or anything. Just a light dusting of snow really. It was enough to freak everybody out. We had prepped to get out of there. Bags had already been packed. The remainder of the food had been split up based on who was most able to carry it. By the third day, I was shambling around the house.
“Hey Boss, good thing you’re not blue cause you’re walking around more like a Zombie than the Zombies do. Walking like that you may be able to just walk right down the middle of the road and they’d just leave you alone.”
Reeves was not one to overly concern himself with trying to boost my self-esteem. No one expected me to carry anything though. That was a big benefit of managing to whiplash your entire body. It drastically reduced the amount of junk everyone expected you to carry. If it weren’t for the severe pain and the fact I was now an easy target for any zombie who had the munchies, this walking wounded thing would definitely have some perks.
We were hoping to make it to Dollywood in one night. The limiting factor there was how fast I could move. We had joked about a wheelchair enough that Reeves had gone looking for one. Unfortunately, he had come back empty handed, so walking it was. Everyone else was loaded down with ammo, guns, food, knives, blankets, medicine, and other random crap. Everyone was bundled up against the cold and to protect against Zombie teeth and fingernails. I was wearing a pair of my dad’s jungle boots, jeans, t-shirt and a big green field jacket. I had two handguns, an AK-47, spare ammo and clips and a few knives.
I practically felt naked with the relatively small amount of gear I was carrying. This feeling no longer bothered me after we’d gone about a mile in the darkness as I was more focused on the pain. We had waited until eleven at night to leave. Hoping most of the Zombies would be in their Zombie snooze piles. Every step I took hurt. My back was doing some kind of creaking thing with every step. My neck had locked into one position and if I tried to move it around there was a lot of pain involved. My body was sweating while my teeth were chattering. I was all messed up and we had barely made it down the driveway.
I focused on putting one foot in front of the other. I had zero situational awareness. I was leaving that to the other members of my party, trusting they would alert me if something was coming I needed to avoid. We all typically had our jobs when we were on the move. This time my job was to put one foot in front of the other as rapidly as I could and follow directions. I had to put all my faith in the team to get me to the other side of this. I will-powered myself up and down the mountain road towards the valley.
The plan was to get to the bottom and follow one of the streets off the main drag towards Dollywood. None of us were a hundred percent sure exactly how far it was since we were going based off the tourist maps, where everything is big and the map is surrounded by coupons. I felt like I was walking at a snail’s pace. I was tempted to tell them to go ahead and I’d catch up. The problem being with that they wouldn’t bother listening and we were also maintaining a strict self-imposed silence.
There were still a lot of Zombies. More than I had seen laying around anywhere at night. It looked like they had broken into the buildings they could and were nesting in there. Based on some kind of Zombie hierarchy a lot of the Zombies were outside in the ‘Zombie Snooze Piles’. Or, ZSPs as we had taken to calling them. The ZSPs were just masses of Zombies snuggling with each other to stay warm. Or, maybe they were scared of the dark, we couldn’t exactly interview one of them to see what made them tick.
The Zombies were stacked against buildings and in alleys. Anywhere there was some sort of structure to block the wind. It looked like the bombs that had been dropped had been loud enough to get every Zombie in the state to converge into this region. The occasional Zombie was up and walking around. We gave them a wide berth. As long as we did not do anything the Zombies associated with normal humans we seemed to be able to walk right past them. One wrong movement, one wrong word, the smallest mistake could get their attention and we’d be dead in seconds. There was no way we would survive getting attacked by the masses laying around here. We didn’t have enough bullets.
We kept moving. My world had condensed down to moving my feet and trying not to trip. I kept telling myself I could rest when we got there. My right leg was the first to give up the fight. It just stopped listening to me tell it what to do. Tears were leaking out of my eyes in sheer frustration as I felt myself slumping down to the ground. I was still conscious and everything but my body was done. I had will-powered myself a couple of miles and that was evidently good enough for my legs. I started trying to crawl forward and Ann squatted down in front of me.
She shook her head for no and helped me get in a sitting position. She squatted behind me, her arms protectively wrapped around me. I was going to die. I did not want to watch my friends die around me. I pantomimed them moving on and I would catch up later. They all just stared at me with concern. They may have also been trying to figure out what I was trying to say since my body was not responding well and it may have looked more like I was having a seizure than trying to tell them to keep going. I couldn’t move my head at all now so unless they stood straight in front of me I couldn’t even see them.
I was too heavy for them to carry, we only had a limited amount of time before it was going to start getting light outside, and we couldn’t use a car or anything that made noise. Reeves was staring at the tourist map. He walked over and nudged Thomas and Ginny and showed them something on it. Then he went over and pointed it out to Ann who nodded and smiled. Then Reeves took my pistol out of the holster and took the safety off and put it on my lap for easy access. Patting me on the shoulder, him, Thomas and Ginny took off the way we had come from at a steady jog. Within
a minute it was just me and Ann. Sitting in the middle of a dark road. It was sometime around two or three in the morning. We had a few hours before the sun would peek up like a big ass Zombie alarm clock.
My legs were coming back to me. I felt like I could probably get up and keep walking. I started to try and standup and Ann put her hands on my shoulders and firmly pushed me back on my ass. I wish someone had shown me the plan. Why the hell were we sitting here waiting to be a Zombie breakfast?
A solid hour passed. I was frozen. A gimpy statue in the arms of a beautiful woman. About three hours from being ripped apart by a bunch of giant smurfs. An overachieving, early rising, Zombie shuffled towards us. Ann let go of me, smoothly rising to her feet behind me. She walked towards the Zombie. Trying her best to look like a Zombie. The Zombie seemed unconvinced, but wasn’t screaming its head off yet. The Zombie was a young woman, or maybe a dude with long hair, wearing shorts and a Led Zeppelin t-shirt. It shuffled towards Ann inquisitively. Head tilted to the side. Rattling breathing sound coming from it.
I wondered exactly what Ann had in mind to keep this thing from making any noise. The second she looked normal, it was going to freak and start screaming at her. She did not give it a second. She made as if she was going to walk right past the Zombie, who had come to a full stop and was staring at her. Ann’s arm darted out like a cobra striking its prey, she lunged forward and drove her knife deep into the Zombies throat. Working the knife around in a big circle. It was gross, but effective. It’s hard to scream with nine inches of American serrated steel working its way through your windpipe and voice box. Ann even had the presence of mind to grab the body before it fell. Bear hugging the blood-soaked body down to the ground.
Zournal: Book 3: Scorched Earth Page 21