by Joe Kelly
“combat in slow motion” Chad said as he cocked and loaded his crossbow. “thats half of them.” Logan said as he lifted his axe hoping he didn’t have to use it. Lloyd had found his rhythm and sent two more arrows downrange and each one dropped a zombie. Chris shot down another, a half-naked female zombie and tried not to let that bother him.
“Ranged weapons down, melee up.” Jared said as he dropped the cross bow and pulled out both tomahawks. By the time it was over they had worked up a sweat. They put away their weapons and put their packs back on. Jared led the way thru the dark tunnel, the stench of the undead still hung in the air, and out onto the other side where the wind cut thru their clothes like a knife.
There was no chance of finding tracks after so much snow. So, Jared didn’t even try. His eyes scanned the road looking for threats. About midway he stopped and walked to the rock face next to the road.
“What is it” Lloyd asked. Jared pointed to a black symbol drawn on the wall.
“it’s a trail code we use. He went up” Jared said staring up. His eyes came to rest on the ledge up above. “he went for that ledge, look at how it drops down to the right and curves around the flank of the mountain to the saddle. that is where they went.” He paused and turned to Lloyd. “and no, I’m not going to suggest we climb up there and check. I don’t know about you Lloyd, only Chris and myself have the skill to make the climb up this cut, and it would take too long to get up there then pull everyone else up to the slope above.”
“you’re sure then” Lloyd asked.
“damn sure. If they had rappelled down, he would have left a different mark and over on the side where they would have gone down at.” Jared said confidently
“at least we know they were still alive after the battle.” Lloyd commented.
“does that mean we are going back to the vehicles” Jill asked almost dancing in place to stay warm.
“unless you feel like being dragged up the mountain at the end of a Rope.” Jared said feeling better now that he knew that Ori and Jason had escaped the battle. It was unlikely that there would be undead up on the mountain side, but it wasn’t impossible either.
“no thanks I’ll leave the kinky rope stuff to Mary and Ronny. I just want to be able to feel my butt again.” Jill said,
“Let’s head back and scout out that unpaved road.” The two-mile trip back to the Vehicles went faster than they expected. Jared climbed up the barricade and checked to make sure it was clear on the other side then helped get everyone over.
The trip back down was uneventful. The only things they could see was snow, lots of snow and occasionally the road and river.
They managed to scout about halfway up the old road. snow shrouded trees, bare of leaves that loomed over the old track. In a year or two, it would be gone. With no traffic nature would reclaim it fairly fast. At the midway point, they pulled into the yard of a collapsing log cabin. As they turned around Jared spotted something and stopped.
“cover my back.” he said as he slipped out of the plow and walked slowly over to a snow hump where something red was partially exposed. He lifted his crossbow and poked at it with his toe. Seemingly satisfied he knelt and began brushing off snow, till he revealed a backpack with coils of rope and other gear attached. He gently removed it from the corpse it was attached to, then carried it back to the plow. Back inside he shrugged. “we can always use more gear” he said as he drove away, the van slowly following.
✽ ✽ ✽
Ori had discovered a Rock shelter that was fifteen-foot-deep, forty feet wide and ten feet high. There was a crack in the back wall that led into three small connected caves. Once they had checked out the caves to make sure there was nothing in it that might not like neighbors, Ori and Jason hauled in firewood and soon had a merry little blaze burning in the second cave where the floor was more vertical. They refilled their canteens and water bottles in the Pool of water in the last cave.
“If I weren’t in such a hurry to get back to heat and Beth, I could camp here for a few days” Ori commented. Jason only nodded in agreement as he stripped off his pants and hung them to dry near the fire.
“you know, I never thought I’d be hiking and climbing a mountain in a snow storm and camping in caves with zombies roaming aorund” he said as he pulled out an MRE and ripped it open. “ Mmm love the short bread.” he said holding up a package.
“I’d kill for a thick beef stew right now.” Ori said as he rummaged around in his pack and pulled out his own meal. “but I’ll have to settle for stroganoff.” He grinned at the look on Jason’s face. “MRE’s are great for emergencies, no doubt. But the next time we hit a Wally world or outfitters shop. See if they have Mountain Food meals. Best stuff on the market.” Ori commented. Not that he expected any to be left anywhere, the first thing people had stripped the stores of had been food, any kind of food.
“I hate you” Jason said with a grin.
“really, you do? Is that why you took off your Clothes and are lounging seductively, short bread in hand, next to the fire.” Ori quipped.
“what you don’t find Short bread hot.” Jason asked.
“only every other Sunday, at noon. During leap year. Then you might get me.” Ori replied
“oh well can’t blame a guy for trying.” Jason said laughing. “never knew you were such a smart ass. You never talked much at camp.”
“don’t talk much at the best of times. But I talk less around people I don’t know.” Ori replied as he fixed his meal.
They sat there for a while eating, and then Jason kicked back in his sleeping bag with a book he had in his pack. “ you carry a book in your pack” Ori asked.
“I carry two. One is a survival book. Figured it might come in handy in an emergency. And this one is a spy thriller.” Jason explained.
“aah” Ori said.
“aah as in cool, or aaah as in how stupid.” Jason asked.
“aah as in it was the only response I could come up with.” Ori replied a slight smile flashing across his face.
Ori lay back on his sleeping bag near the entrance, listening to the storm build back up. They had made good time today. Depending on the weather tomorrow, they might actually make their destination by nightfall or the next day at the latest. He didn’t know what to expect when they got there but the odds were good undead would be involved. Deal with it when it comes he told himself. As long as I can get Jason safely back and get to see Beth I’ll be happy.
Jason lay there reading for maybe ten minutes than put the book back in his pack. “for some reason I can’t read that without wondering if the characters survived the day” he said. “it ruins the whole idea of escaping from reality when reality keeps intruding.”
There was silence for a while then Jason sat up. “How did you meet Jared?” Ori his head resting on his hands smiled at the memory. “I met Jared before the others did, we were in different units at the time.” He said with a distant look in his eyes. “we both were pretty young back then. It wasn’t anything exciting or funny. He was getting ready to PCS, having been assigned to Strike and I was still Scout we met through friends and ended up becoming good friends.”
“I have to ask; how did you guys end up meeting Ronny. I’m betting he got in more fights than not with the way he acts.”
Ori nodded in agreement as he smiled. “well now that’s a story, we were TDY to Korea, for some fun and Kimchee, which I swear is the nastiest stuff ever invented by man.
One weekend, we get some downtime and head to Seoul. Things were going great, beer, music, dancing, and the women. Let me tell you, some of those Korean women were hot, with a capital H. So there we were having a good time, and we see this Grunt over at a table with six of the hottest women in the bar.
Well we walk over determined to have a talk with this hogger of hotness, and what does he do, invites us to sit down buys us beer and introduces himself. Seems he was in our unit too, we both vaguely remembered seeing him around, but he kept to himself.” Ori
paused smiling at the memory. “so, it gets late and we head back to the Barracks, our new friend hauls along three of the women.
Well the barracks are supposed to be closed to females after 11. but usually no one checks. We sneak em inside. get up to our new friend’s room and start doing what comes naturally. Well Ronny’s new woman is a bit of a kink ho. And whips out some handcuffs and cuffs Ronny to the bed and climbs on top and starts playing bed room rodeo, whooping and hollering.
What none us knew, was the E6 in charge of the barracks had been kicked out of his house by the wife and headed to the barracks to sleep. Well he hears all this whooping and hollering, gets out his keys and heads upstairs.” Ori stopped for a moment and wiped at his eyes half laughing.
“well the door flies open, and the E6, Chavez was his name if I remember rightly, stomps in and glares a me first and yells. “what the hell are you doing in here, no women in the barracks after hours.” Now the kink ho hasn’t even slowed down and is hollering YEEEE HAAAAA. And Chavez wheels around ready to rip a few new ones but he sees Ronny and gets this surprised look on his face seeing what’s going on and then Ronny rattles the cuffs and goes. “ Sarge I tried to make her leave.” all the while his woman is heading for the finish line not caring that someone had just walked in.” Jason was laughing now. “Chavez turned bright red, spluttered something about telling the Top and stormed out of the room.”
Ori had to stop he was chuckling so hard tears were in his eyes. After a moment he got control and continued. “Well the next morning, there’s like a hundred sets of handcuffs and boxes of condoms at the barracks room door. So as we report for duty, we are told to go into the commander’s office.
So we march in to the office, snap to attention and report in. sure we are about to get the butt reaming of the century. Well Colonel White, just reaches into his desk and pulls something out. he walked over to Ronny and tells him to hold out his hand. Then drops a handcuff key into Ronny’s hand. The First Sergeant is sitting on the couch, turning red trying not to laugh as the commander tells all three of us we were scheduled for more hand to hand training so no more four foot hookers could handcuff and rape us.”
Jason was laughing pretty hard by then. “and that’s how we met Ronny.” Ori said as he pulled the hip flask out and passed it to Jason. Jason took a swig and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.
“That’s funnier than hell” Jason said,
“Remind me later to tell you about the time Chris did Karaoke. Or when Ronny met Mary.” Ori said, resting his head in his clasped hands chuckling at the memory.
Jason started to pass the flask back but Ori waved it off. “drink a bit more buddy, tomorrow might be rough. Enjoy tonight. Besides I have a couple of quarts stashed away back at camp.”
The next day they left the shelter of the cave, and stepped back out in a renewed storm. Visibility was maybe two feet. They roped together, and worked their way across the mountain with Ori working ahead setting up a safeties for Jason.
Jason had almost argued about that, but then as they were crossing a fairly steep section, Jason hit a icy rock and his feet shot out from under him. He had time to shout and then suddenly found himself hanging by the safety line ten feet down. With Ori’s help he got back up on the trail and they continued their trek.
The gray light was fading out into black again, as Jason finally reached the last leg of the days travel. Snow fell around them, lighter than it had been all day. Ori scouted around for almost an hour till he found a spot about ten feet in diameter in the midst of several large boulders that lay tumbled together.
Using the ponchos again, Ori rigged up a shelter in the middle of the clump of boulders and then they both collected firewood. In the flickering light of the fire, Ori unfolded a map. “okay tomorrow is where it will get dangerous., you see we are now just above this ridge.” He said pointing to the spot on the map. “We climb down here and head north and a bit west and should come across a building and a Road. chance of zombies are moderate to severe with a chance of piss pot full.”
✽ ✽ ✽
Jared walked outside, with the shemagh wrapped around his head and face to keep the biting cold wind off. He almost preferred the heat of the middle east to this crap. Almost, of course there a man would have to deal with fragging camel spiders as well as zombies and to be honest he wasn’t sure which one was worse. On the plus side, the odds of running into a zombie clown were zip in the middle east.
The construction of the wall to block off the east side of the north pasture was moving along at a furious pace. Lloyds people had felled, stripped and made large beams from Trees on the ridge line. Then dragged them into place for the Palisade wall. when finished it would have only a small door so that they could go out and hunt in the woods.
Hunting should be good, assuming the dead stay gone, scouts had reported a Huge ten point deer on the ridge, Lloyd was almost drooling over the prospect of hunting the thing.
“When are we leaving to look for Ori?” Logan asked as he walked over to stand beside Jared pulling on his gloves.
“Two hours. Rob wants to change the oil and do some minor work on the plow before we leave.” Jared turned and looked at the younger man and frowned. Logan had dark rings around his eyes and looked like hell. “did you sleep at all last night” He asked. Logan shrugged and looked embarrassed.
“not really kept having nightmares” Logan said, not eager to discuss it, the sooner he could forget that dream the better.
Instantly Jared was concerned “about what?” he asked as casually as he could.
“That damn zombie at the chapel. Out of all the ones I’ve seen, that one scared me shitless. Still does.” He said and shuddered.
“Sounds like it must have been intense if it kept you from sleeping all night.” Jared observed as Logan nodded
“It kept talking to me, taunting me. And no matter where I ran to it was there waiting for me.” Logan said a trace of the nights fear lingered in his voice.
“It talked to you?” Jared asked, more curious than surprised.
“yeah that was the weird part. Its mouth never moved other than to smile or grin. But I could hear it in my mind.” he shivered slightly, and it wasn’t from the cold. It kept telling me we couldn’t protect the kids, it was better to give up now. Just step away and you’ll live.” He paused for a moment. “In my dream I think it had been a serial killer or something like that. You know how in dreams are you know things without being told them”
Jared stared at him for a moment and felt the anger boiling in him. Even if it was just a nightmare, it meshed with the other dreams he’d heard about. Which was not that many, a handful at most and like Jill those who admitted to having them didn’t want to talk about them in anything other than a general way.
Why not though, it made a twisted sort of sense that evil would use nightmares as another way of stalking the survivors. Another way to sap our will to survive, to kill our hope to make us give up. Well you can kiss my rosy red butt, I’m not giving up and I will do my best to drag the other’s right along with me. This far and no further he quoted silently.
“You okay?” Logan asked suddenly. Jared realized he was clenching his fists so hard his nails had drawn blood.
Forcing himself to relax Jared nodded. “I’m fine sorry. Look if your exhausted stay here today.”
Logan smiled slightly and said “not going to let you down man. You guys would do what it took to find me or anyone else in this group. So the least I can do is the same thing. Sleep be damned.” Jared looked at Logan for a moment, gaining new respect for the younger man. He would have wasted his life in the old world, Jared thought. day in, day out, same old slog with no chance to ever discover who and what he really was.
“Here’s the deal, you can go today. But the first time I think your dead on your feet. You go to the van and get some sleep.” Jared said. “Regardless of what happens, tomorrow your ass stays here in bed with your woman and that’s an order.�
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Logan grinned for a second then said, “Let’s just find them today, and we can all spend tomorrow in bed with whoever we like.” Jared laughed pushing aside dark thoughts and fears.
“Go get your gear before I change my mind and have Linda tranq your ass.”
Logan still smiling headed off to gather what he needed. Jared stood there for a moment lost in thought before he got busy himself.
two hours later the team was assembled and loading their gear aboard the vehicles.
Jared looked over the team he was taking today. Jill and Chris with him in the plow. Ronny, Logan, John Madoc, Kyle and Chad would be in the Van. While Lloyd was going to follow along with three men from the Farm and cover the exit, just in case a horde of zombies decided to head up the road behind them.