This was no way to do surveillance. He would have to move. The only problem with that was there were more and more zombies passing through the area. Sometimes there were as many as 20 to 30 of them passing by in one group, like a herd of cattle. They were just about as smart as cattle too. Though perhaps, that would have been an insult to all the cows left in the world. Will waited patiently for the majority of them to clear out before attempting to move. His plan was to run over to the white dodge pickup that was next in line and see if it was unlocked and if that failed he would have to go for the Ford Escape that was just on the other side of it.
The door was of this old truck cab was being a real bastard and didn’t seem to want to open. Will tried the other door and giving it a little too much shoulder rolled out onto his side, dropping his rifle out of his reach. He felt something grab him by the ankle and when he looked down he saw one of the creatures pulling its mouth to his foot. A lightning strike illuminated the area as if it were daytime for one a brief moment followed by a deafening report of thunder. Will pawed for his .45 and kicked at the ghoul with his free foot. He had just gripped the handle of the pistol when another monster appeared from around the back of the Dodge. Its long hair dripped from its head half of its scalp hanging to the right side. Will shot this creature and before he could level his aim on the one at his feet another came at him from behind. Still kicking he leveled the sights on the approaching ghoul and pulled the trigger. Its eye socket caved in as it fell to the ground in a heap beside him.
Then he felt one of the most painful things he had ever felt in his life. The creature has gotten its mouth onto his ankle and was biting down with the full force of its jaw. He screamed out in pain. It had gotten him right on the Achilles tendon and was clamped down like a vice. He kicked it in the head repeatedly with his other foot until a final blow ripped its teeth from its grasp. He mustered all his strength and tried hard to get to his feet. He needed to get back to his rifle. He was able to get up on his good foot and hop to his rifle but the commotion had only attracted more of them. Why had he tried to come back for these people?
Dan and Anika were jolted awake by the sound of an extraordinarily loud thunder clap. Rain was beating the metal roof of the Peterbilt like a drum. It was coming down in buckets. Dan rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and stretched out a yawn as Anika hugged him from behind. "What time is it?" She asked sleepily.
Just then an odd noise came from outside. Dan had heard these things moan before but this sounded different. It sounded like the scream of a living man. Dan released himself from Anika's embrace and got himself to the driver’s seat of the truck. He had driven these 13 speed trucks before when he was a teenager. It was kind of a rite of passage thing that his uncle had had showed him. He fired up the rig and turned on the headlights. He didn't have to scan the area long before he found the source of the scream. There was a man in full camo hopping around on one foot being surrounded by the horrible creatures. He would spin around on his good foot then shoot one as it advanced then spin to shoot another. This guy was in trouble. The man was moving in the direction of a white dodge pickup nearby. Somehow, still hopping on one foot he made it into the bed of the pickup before he was grabbed by them. Dan watched as he shot several at point blank range with a pistol freeing him and sliding on his butt against the back glass of the cab. Still more were advancing on him, attracted by the sound of the gunfire.
Dan flipped he selector on the gear shift to low range and put it in first gear to get started rolling. He had worked his way to 5th gear before he started mowing the creatures down. The chromed bumper of the big purple truck was being painted in black decaying liquid as it violently ripped through the diseased hoard. Just as the next creature was about to climb into bed of the white dodge Dan crushed it beneath the immense weight of the Peterbilt. He threw the door open and held out his hand. "Come on man!" He yelled. The man stared at him in disbelief for a moment before taking his generous offer. Dan got him into the passenger’s seat of the cab and quickly closed the door of the truck then got them rolling again.
Dan piloted the rig into the southbound lane of the adjacent highway. "It was you wasn't it?" he asked the man. "What do you mean?" Will asked. "You were the one that saved us yesterday right?" Will didn't know how to respond. He was dumbfounded that the tabled had turned so quickly and that now he was sitting in the cab of the truck with the people he was staking out. "I'm Will." He said finally, sticking out his hand for a shake. Dan shook his hand. "I am Dan, and this is Anika." She poked her head out of the curtain that hung over the door to the sleeper cab then shook his hand too. "Good to meet you!" She said with a smile. "Was it you?" She asked. "It was." Will replied sheepishly. He was feeling a bit foolish for judging these two so harshly before when they had just pulled his ass out of the fire. "I guess we are even now" he said with a chuckle. "What happened to your foot?" Dan inquired. "It's not my foot its my ankle. One of those shitheads was hiding under a truck and it reached out and bit me." Will pulled his leg up to examine it. The leather and canvas had held up but there was still a tooth fragment stuck down in one of the seams. "I always figured I would die with my boots on, but it looks like this time they actually prevented that from happening. I think its just bruised." Dan glanced over at him. "You're lucky!" He said.
Will nodded then paused for a moment before asking a question of his own. "So where are you going?" "We're going to Nashville to find my parents. They are in the National Guard there." Anika chimed in. "Wait, what is your last name?" Will asked her. "Edwards" She replied. "Is your daddy, Captain Gary Edwards?" He asked. "Yes!" She replied excitedly. "then your mother is Staff Sergeant Victoria Edwards?" he asked again. "Yeah! You know them?" She asked. "I do know them." He replied "But, I hate to tell you, if you are looking for them you are going the wrong way. Nashville was overrun. They evacuated all troops from there more than a month ago." "So, why are you still here?" Dan inquired. "I got separated from my platoon and missed the EVAC. I guess they thought I was KIA. I haven't been able to hail anybody on the radio either. I don't know where they went but they sure as hell ain't here. That’s why I was headed east. Trust me; you don't want to go into that city. It's worse than a warzone." Anika deflated as she listed to him speak. In only a couple of sentences he had chased away all her hope. "We'll figure it out." Dan said in a feeble attempt to restore her faith. "We'll figure it out."
Chapter 8
Dan pulled the rig over in the parking lot of the De Kalb Market inside of Smithville, Tennessee. They piled out of the rig. The sun was bright but weakly powered and there was a harsh chill in the eastern wind. Despite the chill however, the light felt good on their faces. There was plenty of fuel to take the rig many more miles , but they had discussed it and had decided they would get much farther if they detached the trailer behind them.
"Shouldn't we at least try and see what's in it" Anika asked. Dan felt stupid. How had something so obvious not crossed his mind? "We'd need some damn good bolt cutters." said Will. "Unless we can find those, we are not getting to whatever may be in there. Besides, its probably something useless like DVD..." Dan interrupted him. "What if its not useless! I think we should at least try." Will gave him an intense glare and put his finger in Dan's face. "First of all, never interrupt me! Secondly, it's a fucking waste of energy!" Will angrily replied. "Excuse me asshole?! You may have saved us on the highway, but we saved you too. Just because you are wearing a uniform doesn't mean you get to call the shots!" Dan fired back. Will grabbed Dan's shirt and drew back for a punch but before he could deliver it Anika thrust herself between them "Whoa! Guys! Relax!" She exclaimed while pushing Dan back and manually releasing Will's grip from his shirt. "You're both big alpha dogs, I get it!" She attempted to joke, but neither of them laughed. Both of them did calm a bit though. "Sorry, I guess we are all a bit on edge." Dan offered. Will nodded in agreement. "I just don't want to waste too much time. I'd like to get on the road." Will said gruffly.
"We shoul
d at least try to get into this store and see if we can find some food. Anika and I will go, You can stay here and guard the truck while you rest your ankle… As long as it’s ok with you of course." Dan said sarcastically. Will took it, scowled, and then reluctantly agreed.
Will used his good foot to climb his way back up into the rig he sat sideways with the door propped in the driver’s seat. The keys were gone. Dan must have taken them. "Dan... That dude doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground." He muttered to himself as he looked out over the highway.
He began to survey his surroundings more out of boredom rather than any tactical reason. There was a log building across the road that appeared it was once a real estate agency. To the right of that was a long vacated private residence and to the left was place that sold buildings and storage sheds. He looked over the sheds. Some were made to look like little red barns with white trim work. Others were made to look like little houses with tiny faux porches built on. Some were just standard siding plywood with double doors. He scanned them over again looking across the parking lot and that's when he saw it. It was just the faintest movement in the window of the second building. It was perhaps the least conspicuous of all the structures. Just a plain wood siding building with only one window on the right side, it didn’t really stick out. He reached to pick up his rifle. He pulled the truck door back far enough to use the rolled down window corner as a rest and trained the scope on the tiny window of the shed. He waited for another movement. He could see inside the shed a bit and it looked bare, but the morning sun was glaring off the reflective glass and made it hard for him to make out as much detail as he would like. Then he saw it again.. the movement. Again it was just for a second and gone. The hair on Will's neck began to rise up and he felt that familiar frosty feeling steel him for what maybe about to come next. He watched the window intently waiting for more details as a cat may watch for a mole to emerge from its underground home. Waiting with claws bared and hackles up.
Suddenly the area began to darken as a cloud in the sky overtook the sun. Something moved past the window again but this time he felt he could clearly make out a hand. It left a print on the window. Now that the glare was gone he could see that there were many prints on the window; dark mucky red ones and he noticed panning his scope over to the door that there was a master lock connected in the latch on the outside. The movement happened again and he panned back over to window long enough to see the face of child of maybe 9 or 10 gnashing its teeth against the glass. Will's heart sank yet he remained transfixed by the tiny ghoul’s visage in the window.
"Hey big man check this shit out!" a voice said loudly. Will shook startled and caught himself from turing the rifle on Dan. "Don't you know never to startle someone with a rifl...." Wills words fell short when he saw what Dan had in his hand. "Where the hell did you find that?" Will asked. "Behind the register." Will said. Dan beamed as he held out the pair of 24 inch Craftsman Bolt cutters. "Well, I'll be damned." Will said almost under his breath and a little through his teeth. There was no argument now, they may as well see what was inside.
Will hopped down the side of the truck and hobbled his way to the back of the trailer with Dan. About this time Anika was arriving with 6 full grocery bags of various nonperishable snack foods and sodas, even some beer on a horizontal hand truck. "Wait, I want to see too!" she said as she dropped the load and ran over to the back of the trailer joining the others.
There were two heavy duty steel commercial grade pad locks latching the handle to each door of the trailer. The commercial locks were wider set and thicker stainless steel than a standard padlock and Dan putting all his weight into it couldn’t cut though with the bolt cutters. Will gave it a shot next and squeezed with all his might the strong alloy held up. Finally working together both of them pulling from either side the lock snapped apart and sent both of them falling to the ground. Anika giggled as the both grumbled and pulled themselves back to their feet. Dan removed the broken lock and pushed the handle up to open the right side trailer door. "Here we go." He said as he opened it and they all stood with their jaws slack at what was inside. "Wow, it’s…" "Shhhhh" Will said to quiet her "Do you hear that?" They all heard it. It was the sound of engines again in the distance. "We've got to move!" Will yelled and they all sprang into action.
Dan slammed the trailer door closed, latched the handle then began jogging around to the driver’s side of the truck pawing for the keys in his breast pocket. Will helped Anika quickly load the food into the cab from the other side and then quickly they piled in as well leaving the hand truck behind. By this time Dan already had the truck started and in gear and they were rolling. "Which way were they coming?" He screamed as he made it to the road but his question was already answer by the vehicles making an appearance on the western horizon. The same primer colored pickup, Green Wrangler, and Red hatchback as were headed right for them. Dan pointed the large truck east and headed into the small town. He picked up speed as quickly as the large loaded down vehicle could. Soon they were doing nearly 70 mph down Broad St. but the vehicles behind them were still gaining.
"Get in the back, Will yelled to Anika as he took the front passenger seat and leaned himself out the window pistol in hand." The width of the Trailer was too much for him to shoot past so he took off his belt and a carabineer used for climbing. He wrapped the belt around the handle to the right of the door a person would use to pull themselves in and clipped the carabineer to the belt and the other end to his vest. Will sat on the edge of the door and leaned himself out as far as the belt would allow. They were closer now. The vehicles were about to overtake them. Just as Will steadied his aim and took the first shot at the small red hatchback, Dan swerved to miss an abandoned Ford Bronco causing him to miss. The bullet ricocheted off the pavement kicking up debris. "Shit!" Will yelled in frustration. Dan steadied the rig and Will took another shot this time hitting the blacked out windshield of the car in the middle causing a spider web crack around the entry point. However he must not have hit the driver as the car continued on.
Dan then saw the sign with an arrow pointing left to I-40. Dan slowed and turned the rig left onto Congress Blvd. nearly rolling it in the process before getting right back into the throttle. Then the strangest thing happened. When they turned the vehicles did not give chase. They just continued down Broad St. "What the hell?" will said as he climbed back into the truck. "They're gone." He said, bewildered, as he put on his seatbelt. Then it hit him like slap in the back of the head. "Stop this fucker now!" he demanded. "What’s the matter they are gone" Dan inquired. "It's a trap! They wanted us to go this way!" Dan immediately understood and geared the rig down to pull it into the parking lot of a place called Fred's Pharmacy. The parking lot looped all the way around the large brick building and Dan parked the truck around the back so as it was hidden from view of road. He turned off the Engine.
"Stay here." Will commanded as he climbed out with his rifle slung around his back. There were some tall bushes alongside the parking lot he hobbled over to them as quickly as his bruised and swollen ankle would allow and crouched down inside. He hypothesized there must be a road that looped around and came out beyond them somewhere, and the pursuers were bound to have taken it. He didn't have to wait long. The sound of the engines, followed by the sight of the three vehicles going by to the south proved him to be correct. As soon as they were out of view he hobbled back to the truck. Climbing back in, he regaled Dan and Anika of what he had just witnessed. "I don't know if we should stay put or drive like hell." Dan said. "My vote is for drive like hell!" Anika exclaimed. "I don’t want to be anywhere near those people" Dan looked at Will. "What do you think." he asked him. "I think if you are going to go you better go now because they’re bound to look around looking for us again."
With the decision made Dan fired up the powerful six cylinder diesel engine and got them rolling again quickly up Congress Blvd. They soon passed the Smithville Airport Industrial Park. "Do you know how to fly a plane? D
an asked Will passively. "No I just know how to jump out of them." Will replied. "How come you didn't ask me you sexist pig?" Anika teased. "I...uh...well do you?" Dan stammered. "Actually I can" She replied. Both Men were slack jawed at her proclamation. "Don't you remember? Mom is a pilot in the Air National Guard. She taught me a thing or two." Dan turned back and looked at her. "You never cease to amaze me." Then he turned and headed for the small airport.
Chapter 9
"What is that smell Ricky? Asked Gordon Blankenship as he finished scooping the last couple of shovels of dirt out of the 7 by 7 foot hole that was now deeper than his waist. "I think one of them shit themselves after they bit the dust" Ricky Gross, a middle aged redheaded man with mutton chopped sideburns, replied. "Why the hell does Black Dave want us to bury these damn people anyway? We took care of them right. Every one of them got blows to the dome" Gordon pressed. "Listen young’un, Don't ask questions just do as your told!" Ricky replied again, this time a bit more gravel in this voice. "Help me roll them in." He commanded.
Gordon did as he was told. The two of them worked together until all 11 remaining members of the "Holy Rolling Church of God" traveling ministry's congregation lie in the mass grave. "Ricky, You and baby Gordy come get something to eat. James and Ronny are going to take over for you." Shouted "Black" Dave Ferguson in his usual deep tone, his 6 foot 3 inch formidable frame covering the door of the bus he and the rest of the prisoners from the Sullivan County Corrections Center had just procured. They had been making their way south down the interstate and exploring each exit to see what they could take. Finding this luxury diesel powered tour bus was a significant improvement upon what they had been working with in the past.
Life After Page 5