“What can we do?” Emma asked. “Katie and I certainly won’t be of much help, even that stray cat that kept coming around the house and getting into the garbage can wasn’t afraid of us.”
“We’ll we have one thing going for us, they won’t know that we expect them to do anything,” I replied.
I sat out away from our camp site where I could watch our site and the yard in front of our site.
I had Katie and Emma take their blankets and sleep behind the tent back near the back of the building.
I rolled up my blanket and placed it across the open end of the lean-to to make it look like someone was sleeping.
Logan sat between me and back where the girls were sleeping.
I put out the fire, to save what burnable wood was left for later and to keep the area around our site as dark as possible. After sitting in the darkness for a few hours, my eyes had adjusted enough to make out the shapes of the few tents scattered around the yard and see the dark pillars of smoke slowly rising up into the dark sky.
I figured I would hear anyone that came sneaking around before I would see them, then hopefully I would be able to pick up their movement against the dim star light.
After that, I would just hope for a little luck.
I did what I could to prepare with what I had, what I had was a roll of rope, a pair of socks half filled with stones and a couple of rocks I was able to dig up near the building.
That, and hopefully the element of surprise.
I was beginning to wonder if the creeps were going to show up, maybe they were just too damned lazy to go out in the middle of the night. Maybe they would try to deal with us during the day, but after what Ben had said and if I was in their shoes, I would do it in the middle of the night. If by any chance they were to confront someone in front of the entire camp and discover too late that their target was able to fight back, that could create dissent within the peasants and threaten their hold over the base.
I had been sitting watch for what felt like hours, fighting back the sleep, when I heard what sounded like a pack of wild animals attacking a wounded animal.
More than that, it reminded me of the dead when they attacked and killed the little girl that had jumped out of the mini van and was trying to make it to our garage.
But it couldn’t be anything like that, not here, not yet, at least I hoped not.
“Dad,” Logan whispered.
“I’m here,” I whispered back.
“Did you hear that?” he asked. “What was that?”
“I don’t know, but just in case we better be ready,” I replied. “You remember what I need you to do?” I asked.
“I remember,” Logan replied.
“Now if you see that they have weapons or knives,” I added, “just stay back with your mother and sister. I don’t want you getting seriously injured or killed. We’ll just have to find some other way to deal with them.”
“I know, live to fight another day,” Logan replied. “But until I hear you tell me to back off, I intend to kick some ass.”
“Good boy,” I chuckled quietly, “Now go back and be ready.”
I waited for what felt like another hour before I heard voices off in the distance.
I stared out into the darkness, watching for anything that would tell me that there was someone moving around.
I heard the voice again briefly, then I saw something block out a patch of glowing red embers, left overs from someone’s campfire, for a second and then the red embers reappeared again.
I picked up a pebble and tossed it back towards Logan, a second later a pebble bounced on the ground in front of me, Logan’s signal that he was ready.
I watched and waited, soon I was able to pick up movements closer to our site.
I hunkered down close to the ground and remained motionless as I watched.
As they came closer, I began to make out shapes, from what I could see, there were four of them. I couldn’t see who they were, I could only make out shapes.
I started to worry that it might not be the creeps, but maybe Ben and some of his friends coming over to talk with me under cover of darkness.
Maybe Ben wanted to talk more about him and some of his friends moving over next to my site so we could all better protect ourselves. I would hate to find that I had attacked and injured the wrong people.
Then I heard a voice I recognized, it was brief, but I remembered that voice. The guy that liked corn said quietly, “Ted and I will take care of the two men, you two grab the two bitches and drag them to the back of the building.”
It was then I lost all hesitation about what I needed to do and was determined to protect my family at any cost.
I waited and watched the dark shapes move in closer.
As they moved closer, they began to walk side by side, moving towards my site.
I waited and hoped my little trap would work, if nothing else it would give me the temporary distraction I would need, at best it might actually do some damage.
I tried to control my breath, breathing in deeply and letting out the air slowly and quietly, like I would do when aiming the rifle.
Then they reached the rope I had strung six inches off the ground across the path ten feet in front of the tent.
Three of the four shapes fell to the ground, followed by cries of pain and surprise.
I jumped to my feet, holding the sock half full of stones over my head, I made a dash for the standing figure.
I swung the stone filled sock with all my might and connected with the head of the standing figure, which went down like a rock.
I turned and started pounding at the fallen figures, careful not to hit Logan who was now next to me, fiercely pounding his stone filled sock against the fallen figures.
When the only sound I heard was the sound of stones meeting flesh, I told Logan to hold up.
“I think we got them,” I said as I listened to Logan breathing heavily.
“Brian, are you OK?” I heard Emma whispering from behind the lean-to.
“I think so,” I replied.
“Should I hit them all again just incase they are playing possum?” Logan whispered.
“Just be ready, I’ll check them out,” I replied and started to move from body to body to be sure they were all unconscious.
“Dad, are they the creeps?” Katie asked as she crawled over next to me.
“I’m pretty sure they are,” I replied as I kept examining the unconscious bodies with my hands. “Hey, this one is a girl.”
“How can you tell, it so dark around here?” Katie replied.
“Give me your hand,” I said.
Katie reached out and touched my shoulder. I took her hand and placed it on the unconscious body in front of me where my hand had been.
“What is that?” Katie asked then groaned. “Oh Dad, you should have just said trust me. I would have believed you.”
“Hey, it’s dark, how else can I check out these people?” I asked.
“I have an idea,” Katie said and scampered into the lean-to.
A few seconds later I saw a light glow under the canvas.
Katie climbed back out of our tent. Holding her cell phone in her hand like a flashlight.
“I know we’re saving the cell phone batteries for when the phones are working again but using it like this for a few minutes shouldn’t hurt too much,” Katie said.
We moved around and examined all the bodies.
“This is the bitch, I’m sorry Dad, this is the girl that pushed me into the trench,” Katie said.
“This is the guy that wanted us to give him our corn,” Logan said. “I think he is dead.”
I rolled the guy over, besides the wounds on his head from me hammering his head with the stoned filled sock, he had a piece of wood sticking out of his throat, a result of tripping over the rope I had strung across the front of our tent and the pieces if wood I had stuck in the ground, pointy side up.
The other two men, both covered in tattoos, we
re men that we didn’t recognize and who were still alive.
“OK, here is what I want you to do,” I said as I grabbed the rope, pulled out my penknife and began to cut the rope into two-foot sections. “I want you to tie their hands behind their back and tie their feet together. Tie a piece around their head and through their mouth like a gag. Katie, you tie up the girl, Logan you take the dragon man and I’ll tie up the snake creature. Emma, you hold the light for us.”
Five minutes later, we all sat back panting from our efforts.
“Now what are we going to do with them?” Emma asked. “You don’t plan on just leaving them tied up here?”
“No, I plan on taking them somewhere that will send a message to the creeps around here,” I replied.
“And where would that be, you don’t plan on dropping them off down at their sites?” Emma asked. “That would be dangerous.”
“No, that would be dangerous,” I replied. “I think Logan and I are going to take the girl up to the women’s restroom tent and deposit her in the trench.”
“Good,” Katie said sarcastically.
“The men, I think we will just take them up and drop them off in front of the building where everyone will see them tomorrow morning,” I added.
“Why don’t we put them in the men’s restroom trench?” Logan asked.
“We want to send a message, not make them all so pissed off that they all come down here and kill us,” I replied. “The girl will know she got what she deserved. The guys will know that they got beat at their own game.”
“What about the dead guy?” Emma asked.
“That’s a problem.” I replied. “I just hope he was an asshole that no one liked. Maybe he bullied everyone, even the creeps, so they won’t really care what happened to him. If not, there isn’t much we can do about it now.”
“Can I come with you and push that bitch…girl in the trench?” Katie asked.
“No, you stay here with your mother and keep alert, there may be more of them out here,” I replied.
“And what do we do if someone else shows up?” Emma asked.
“You and Katie stay in the tent while we’re gone,” I said. “We’ll only be gone for a few minutes. When we come back I’ll give a password, let’s use ‘safe zone’ as the password, so you’ll know it’s us. If anyone tries to come in the tent without saying the password, slug them with a rock.”
“If I hit someone with a rock, all that will do is make them mad,” Katie said.
“This won’t take us long,” I replied. “Maybe just hide out behind the tent until we get back, it’s dark, you’ll be safe back there until we get back.”
“I like that idea better,” Katie replied.
“Let me borrow your cell phone for the first trip,” I said. “I don’t want to end up falling in that trench in the dark.”
“Here,” Katie said. “You can keep it until you’re done.”
“No, just the first trip in the tent,” I replied. “If I use it out in the open, it will be like shining a spotlight. We don’t want to alert anyone about what happened here. Remember, tomorrow you have to act surprised when we hear anything about what happened to these people.”
Logan and I quietly moved the bodies. We dropped off the girl in the trench where I had found Katie. We dropped off the three men on the ground in front of the steps in front of the building where the soldiers were staying.
Fortunately, none of the people regained consciousness before we were done.
It was also fortunate that the door to the building was closed and there weren’t any guards stationed outside the building.
It had been one hell of a first day at the safe zone, we had hoped the second day would be better, but of course it wasn’t.
Chapter 6
I was barely able to keep my eyes open by morning.
I had set up the rest of the night to keep watch in case any one came looking for their friends, but fortunately the rest of the night had passed by quietly.
I felt grateful the rest of the night was uneventful, my nerves were shot and with the lack of sleep, I kept imagining that there was motion all around me, but in the darkness, no matter how long I stared out across the yard I couldn’t see anything moving.
I figured my mind was playing tricks on me, but I continued to stare out into the night.
It was my hope that what had happened would confuse and concern those creeps enough that they wouldn’t bother anyone for a few days.
If we were lucky, the corn man was their leader, and after the loss of their leader the rest of the group wouldn’t know what to do and life at the safe zone would become more civilized.
However, I wasn’t going to hold my breath that anything would change significantly. All I could do was hope, then wait and see.
I stretched what was left of the roll of rope across the space in front of the lean-to again, hoping for the same results if necessary, then took up my place away from our site.
When the morning light began to brighten the horizon, Logan came over to give me a break and I gratefully went in the tent to get some sleep.
I think I was asleep before my head touched the ground.
I hadn’t been sleeping for very long, at least that was the way it felt, when I heard someone shriek.
I opened my eyes and sat up quickly and began looking around, my first thought was that we had visitors again.
My eyes finally settled on the rigid, terrified body of Katie standing behind the lean-to as she stared at the fence that ran behind the building and our spot.
The loud moaning attracted my attention away from Katie, and then I saw what had scared Katie.
The dead were lined up against the fence staring at Katie, their arms reached through the fence, their hands grasping at the thin air as they tried to grab her.
Katie was frozen in place a mere six feet away from the bony outstretched hands of the dead.
I quickly got up and walked over to Katie and put my arms around her.
She shrieked and started to run, but I pulled her against me and said, “Relax, it’s just me.”
Katie pulled in close, I could feel her heart beating, feeling like a freight train against my chest.
“You scared the hell out of me,” she said, her voice sounding like more of a whimper.
“Sorry,” I replied. “When did they show up?”
“I don’t know, I just came back here to see if my clothes were dry,” she said. “I didn’t expect them to be here and one of them almost pulled my shirt off.”
I turned her around and pushed up her sleeve then slid the shirt down over her shoulder to see if she had been injured, but the only damage I saw was the torn sleeve on her shirt.
I could still feel her body trembling.
“Dad, I’ve never seen one of them up this close,” she whispered as we continued to look at the horrifying sight in front of us. “They look so gross. Seeing people like this, their dark rotting skin, their insides hanging out, it makes my skin crawl.”
“It’s not a pretty sight,” I said softly.
“I looked in their eyes,” Katie swallowed hard, “and I could almost hear them thinking and feel what they wanted to do to me. Dad, do you think they will be able to get through that fence?”
“I don’t think so, that old wrought iron fence is pretty strong,” I replied. “We’re OK.”
“I’m scared,” she said looking up at me.
“We’re all scared,” I smiled, “but as long as they are out there, and we are in here, they can’t hurt us.”
“Dad!” Logan said startling both Katie and I as we stood almost in a trance as we stared at the dead.
“Mom told me to come get you,” he said. “Something is going on over at the other side of the yard.”
“OK,” I replied and put my arm around Katie’s shoulder and lead her around the tent.
When we came around the tent Emma took one look at Katie and said, “What happened to you, you look like you saw a g
host?”
“The dead are lined up at the fence behind the building,” I replied. “One of the dead grabbed Katie’s shirt and almost ripped it off of her.”
Emma’s eye got large.
“I looked her over, it didn’t scratch her skin or anything, she’s OK,” I replied then asked, “What’s going on out in the yard?”
I don’t know, I just saw a crowd forming across from us on the other side of the yard,” Emma said. “I just thought you should know. You don’t think it has anything to do with last night do you?”
I looked across the yard and could see a large gathering of people, mostly the backs of a small crowd, but I couldn’t tell what they were looking at.
“I don’t know, but I wouldn’t think so,” I replied. “The creeps are camped way down at the other end of the yard, seeing a crowd of people over this way seems unusual. I think I’m going to walk over and see what is going on.”
“I’ll come with you Dad,” Logan said.
“No, you stay here with Katie and your mother,” I replied. “I’ll be OK.”
“Be careful Brian,” Emma said nervously.
“I’ll be fine,” I replied. “I don’t think any one is going to bother me out in the open in front of everyone. You guys just stay alert, with everyone’s attention being attracted to whatever is going on out there, you need to be careful no one wanders over this way. I won’t be long.”
I took a fast look around our end of the yard to be sure there weren’t any of the creeps lurking around, then I began to walk across the yard.
It only took a moment to reach the back of the small crowd of about fifty people that had formed near the fence.
I started to slowly make my way around the crowd, as I turned and started to make my way to the front, the first thing I noticed was how many of the dead were lined up on the other side of the fence.
Just Trying To Stay Alive: A Prepper's Tale Page 25