Caitlyn took in his words. She thought about it for about a second before urgently asking the man to turn around. She told him her little sister was still in the building. All Caitlyn could think of now was that she’d left Zoey to die. How could she have been so stupid. Of course, Zoey was better off with them than she was alone in a house by herself. Especially a house that’d been set up as a honeypot for the Zombies. Caitlyn should’ve dragged her out of her hiding spot and made sure she came along with them.
Consumed with worry she listened as the man talked on the radio.
“Detainee number one is saying there’s still a juvenile female back in the building. She didn’t confirm prior as she was worried about our intentions. She wants to turn around for the juvenile. Over.”
“Negative. We need to get out of this sector. The herd is danger close. We don’t have time to search for the juvenile. Over.”
On hearing that last transmission Caitlyn leapt for the door handle. She tried her best to get out of the moving truck before they could stop her. The man guarding her tried pulling her back and yelling at her to sit down. He finally pushed her to the ground with the help of another man in the truck. Caitlyn struggled and hit one of them in the face with her elbow. He leaned back leaking blood out of his broken nose. The man with the bloody nose kicked her hard in the back of her head. Her forehead bounced off the floor boards. The world swam in her vision before everything faded to black. Her wrists were zip tied together and she was tossed into the back seat on top of a tearful Ali.
The men followed the truck in front of them that had Myriah and Doreen in it. Doreen was in Myriah’s lap with both her arms wrapped tightly around her neck. Her face was buried in Myriah’s shoulder soaking her shirt with snot and tears. Myriah was freaked out about leaving Zoey behind. She couldn’t just jump out of the truck though. She had Doreen to think about. In the seat in front of her Myriah saw a man playing what she thought was a video game. As she watched the monitor, she saw the man was seeing an aerial view of the area they were in. One side of the screen was undulating with motion.
“What’s all that stuff moving around on the side?” Myriah asked curiously.
“Not really supposed to talk about this with outsiders. Since you’re staring at me and fixing to be sent off to bride school though I’ll let you in on it. This is how we found you and your sisters. We were actually looking for another group of people right near here when I saw you pulling all those shenanigans in the pool. That’s how we tracked you down. All that motion on the side of the screen that looks like some kind of glitch. That’s the herd coming this way. Which is why we’re going the other way.” The man answered. He turned back around in his seat with finality indicating the conversation was over.
By the time they’d turned the corner Myriah was desperately trying to think of a way to escape and go save Zoey. Based on what she could make out on the screen the herd was seeping through the woods and around the local streets to converge on the house her little sister was currently sitting in. She wouldn’t stand a chance.
Indecision about leaving Doreen behind got Myriah caught reaching for the door handle. The other man sitting in the seat in front of them had been watching as Myriah’s eyes drifted over to look for an escape route. He moved back to sit next to them. He took out a couple of zip ties and calmly tied Myriah’s wrists to the metal part of the headrest on the seat in front of her. Forced to lean forward Myriah watched on the video as the herd moved out of the woods and converged on the house they’d just left. They were already well on their way out of the neighborhood.
Knowing it was pointless to protest. Thinking to herself that her sleeping had just gotten someone else she loved killed Myriah did her best to comfort Doreen. They cried together. Myriah picturing Zoey’s sweet face and little girl attitude. Doreen was missing everyone and scared and had no idea what was going on. Myriah was so concerned about Zoey that she never even thought to ask what the man had meant when he said they were going to be going to bride school.
Back at the house Zoey lay huddled on the cold, hard porcelain bottom of the bathtub. She’d shut the door when everyone left but she couldn’t get it to lock now. The lock must’ve been broken when the attacker had kicked the door in earlier. She’d pulled the jug of lake water and all the towels into the bathtub with her. She shut the shower curtain and pulled the towels over her body as she heard the boombox start shrieking out it’s welcoming song to the Zombies. Minutes later she heard Zombies ripping through the house. She burrowed deeper into the towel mound she’d built for herself and tried to keep from crying too loud.
Chapter 14: Deep Cover
Kyler bounced around in the back of the oversized pickup truck. He’d expected one of the men to stay in the bed to keep an eye on him, but the guy had just said that riding in the back sucked then left Kyler there. Kyler agreed. Tom would never win any awards for smooth driving. It was like he went out of his way to find bumps. It didn’t help that he seemed to like going through the median to get around the few cars blocking the roads versus just weaving through them. He was driving via the median to keep from having to slow down. What it ended up doing was bouncing everyone around like potatoes on a trampoline.
They weren’t able to drive all the way to the guard post that trip. They were a little over three miles away from it when they ran into a mass of Zombies coming down I-95 from the north. There was an exponentially larger number of Zombies than Kyler had seen earlier that day. He supposed they may have been in the woods nearby or maybe they’d been following Kyler down I-95 the whole time. Either way, when Tom turned the truck around to get moving south again Kyler couldn’t see an end to the mob of Zombies marching down the interstate.
What he could see was a handful of the fast ones bounding along the road towards them. Tom had taken his sweet time turning around. He’d probably been recording the mob on his phone or making notes or having a snack or whatever. Which was fine for him to be doing in the cab of the big truck with all kinds of weapons strapped to him. It wasn’t so fine for Kyler since he was in the open air of the truck bed with no weapons and his hands tied behind his back. He was soaked and starting to shiver from the miserable drizzle of rain coming down.
He forgot all about his discomforts from the rain when the first Zombie caught up to them and leapt into the air. The monster landed on the roof of the cab of the truck and started trying to claw its way in. Kyler stayed as quiet as he could hoping it wouldn’t notice him. Tom accelerated and the Zombie slipped off the roof of the cab right into the bed of the truck. It sat up about two feet in front of Kyler and stared right at him. Kyler was considering jumping over the side of the truck when the sliders on the window into the cab of the truck opened. Someone held a large pistol out of the window aimed at the Zombie.
The Zombie went for Kyler just as the gun was fired. Bullets impacted and shattered the skull of the leaping demon. Kyler was splattered with all kinds of Zombie gore as the remainder of the head fell into his lap with the body flapping around behind it. Happy to be alive Kyler decided he didn’t even care that he probably had muzzle flash burns on his neck and his hearing was pretty much gone on that side now. He turned around to thank the guy with the pistol when it started firing again. The big barrel was only a few inches from his face.
Kyler moved backwards away from the gun and huddled in the corner of the pickup truck bed. Yet another Zombie jumped into the bed with him and was shot until it stopped moving. The bed of the truck was sloshing around with a Kool-Aid like mixture of blood and water. The truck finally picked up enough speed where even the adrenalized Zombies weren’t able to catch up. Kyler was bouncing around in the back now with a couple of dead bodies and a whole lot of fluids. He wanted a case of hand sanitizer and some of those green scrub pads to use on his skin. With the wind whipping everything around he was hopeful he may actually dry off before he died of hypothermia.
The truck pulled over briefly for a bathroom break. Kyler was given a bott
le of water with a straw to sip out of. Tom finally took pity on him and cut the zip ties so Kyler could hold the bottle himself. Tom and the other guys used some poles to push the Zombie carcasses out of the back of the truck. They left the bodies to rot in the ditch and drove a few more miles before exiting the interstate.
Once they pulled off the exit the truck pulled over to the side of the road again. Tom walked back around to the back of the truck. He motioned for Kyler to climb down and turn around so he could tie his wrists back together.
“We’re going to head through town here and then take a couple back roads to the camp. This is where we take the people who cross into our territory for interrogation and on-boarding. I know you were headed down south to see if you could find your parents but at this point, I’d advise you to suddenly become very interested in joining up with us. If you get accepted, then you’ll probably be assigned to a unit like ours. You’ll get weapons and food and a safe place to stay. If you don’t join or don’t get accepted for whatever reason, then the places you go and the things you end up having to do aren’t really pleasant. I think you’d fit in good here for what it’s worth.”
Kyler nodded. This was all fitting into the plan pretty nicely except he liked Tom and the team. They seemed like the same kind of men who made up the roving patrols back in the settlements. He was having a hard time reconciling that they’d be the ones attacking and killing for no reason. They’d hit on this in his training with the instructor bringing up the fact that if you happened to know German you could probably have sat down and had a beer with the same men who operated the gas chambers during the holocaust. The worst monsters in human history all looked like normal men. Most of them had incredible charisma as well. Of course, there was also the possibility that these people had nothing to do with the attacks on the settlements. That’s what he was there to find out.
“Thanks Tom. I appreciate the heads up. Also appreciate you letting me ride this far without the tie wraps on. These things suck.”
Tom laughed. “Agreed. I’ve had them on me too. Alright, we probably should’ve put these ties on after you were in the truck. Oh well. Let’s see if you can get up there without killing yourself. We’ll call it your first test.”
With the tail gate down Kyler was able to awkwardly climb into the back of the truck with only a little help needed from Tom. They drove quickly through the tiny town by the interstate exit consisting of a couple of gas stations and two dive bar looking restaurants. Kyler didn’t spot any Zombies hanging out so assumed the camp had come through here and cleaned out the area to make it safe to exit the interstate. That level of safety was going to change quickly once the giant herd following them reached the exit.
The camp they were going to turned out to be an actual campground. There were a bunch of cabins tucked into open spaces along a single road. There was a small store for campers to buy liquor and band aids in under a large KOA sign. There was an administrative building tucked in among the other buildings. The administration building was the first one visible after they turned in. There were a few armed men walking in between the cabin to the administrative building. He looked for anything useful to report as part of his spy role, he didn’t see anything that he thought anyone was going to really care too much about. The recon patrol had already located this camp anyway.
A man walked out of the administrative building to meet them. Tom saluted then shook the man’s hand as they talked. Kyler couldn’t make out all the words, but it was obvious Tom was telling the camp commander about the guard outpost on the state line being overrun. Even more concerning to the commander would be the news about the herd heading down the interstate in this direction. Tom finished up his report and walked back to the truck with the commander.
“Tom tells me you’re interested in joining up.” The commander said to Kyler.
“Yes sir.” Kyler said back respectfully.
“Ok then. Climb on out of the truck and I’ll take you to the intake clerk. He’ll ask you some questions and have you fill out some forms. Once we check you over for bites, we’ll get those ties off of you. If you can go ahead and climb down, we’ll head in now.” The commander and Tom shared a few more words quietly as Kyler worked out how to get out of the truck with his hands tied behind him. Once on the ground the commander motioned for Kyler to follow him and they headed into the administrative building. The commander dropped Kyler off in the care of another uniformed man.
The man took Kyler into an examining room. There was a sheet of plexiglass with a door in it that had been added to cover half the room. There was a hole in the door big enough for someone to stick their hands through to get a zip tie cut off once they got in the room. The man opened the door and cutoff the zip tie. Then he had Kyler go inside and strip down. Once completely undressed the man had Kyler spin slowly in a circle so he could inspect him for any bites or suspicious scratches.
“I don’t see any bite marks or scratches on you. Any health issues we need to worry about? We have some doctors if you do have anything. As long as you don’t have a condition that requires medicine with an expiration date, we can hook you up.” The man looked at Kyler who shook his head no and started getting dressed. Once dressed Kyler went through a very similar on-boarding process to what he’d done in the settlements. It kept striking him how similar all of this was to what he was used to up north. Once the questions had all been asked and answered the clerk locked Kyler in the room and left to go make his report to the commander.
An hour later there was a few hard raps on the office door and the camp commander walked back in. He sat down at the desk and leaned forward to look at Kyler.
“In the old world you wouldn’t have been able to legally buy cigarettes or vote yet. You’d be wondering if you were going to get lucky at the prom. Now you’re probably wondering if we’re going to take you out back and shoot you. Well, we’re not so you can get that out of your head. What I am going to do is very simply ask you if you want to join up with us. Tom gives you a good reference and the clerk says you check out. You’ve got the skills and experience to get put into one of our teams despite how old you are. Does that sound good to you?”
Kyler paused to look like he was thinking about it. “Sir, I was hoping to go check in on my parents down in Florida. If I do this will I be able to get down there?”
“Sure. You’ll get sent where you’re most needed, but you can absolutely put in to get down to Florida. It may take some time but eventually you’ll get there. We’re working hard to make Georgia and Florida into a safe place to live again. You can be a part of that. Sound good?”
“Yes sir. I’m in.” Kyler said. They both knew he didn’t have much of a choice anyway. The commander welcomed him aboard then sent him away to one of the cabins. He let him know to report back to the administrative building the next morning to get his orders.
A few minutes later he found himself walking down the road looking for cabin number twenty. They hadn’t put a guard on him. He wondered if it was a test and they had someone watching the cabin to see if he’d try and sneak off in the middle of the night. He found the cabin and went inside. There was a pile of MREs sitting on the small table in the dining room area. The fireplace looked like it was a real one if he wanted to try and get a fire going. Not knowing what else to do he used a knife he found in the kitchen to cut open an MRE and make himself dinner. He lay down on the couch thinking he’d get up and go to the bed when he got too tired.
He woke up on the couch the next morning with the light streaming in through the kitchen window in the cabin. Time to go report in and see what new kind of weirdness this day would bring him. With a full stomach from breakfasting on another MRE and a sore neck from falling asleep at an awkward angle on the couch Kyler opened the door to head to the administrative building and get the weirdness started.
Chapter 15: Home Sweet Home
Randy woke up pissed off at himself. They hadn’t set a watch. They hadn’t even really tried to
hide or secure the doors. Tony had worked his way through the six pack of Corona and a bottle of red wine before passing out. Kelly had said she was too excited about looking for the kids to fall asleep then promptly fallen asleep. Randy had been left in an uncomfortable position supporting Kelly while trying to balance on the edge of the shelf he was leaning up against. He hadn’t been too concerned about himself falling asleep considering the discomfort of the position he was in. He’d sat there with his arm around Kelly while the sun filled the store with shadows.
Randy’s arm was completely numb from the awkward position he’d slept with it in around Kelly. The sound of broken glass crunching drifted to him from the front of the store. The snuffling noises the Zombies made when they were on the hunt but hadn’t seen anything yet came next. They always reminded Randy of the noises the Black Riders had made in the Lord of the Rings movies. The noises a rabid dog would make sniffing at the carcass of its owner after it ripped out his throat.
Randy sat up straight and put his hand over Kelly’s mouth before rocking her sharply to try and wake her up. It took a few tries as he didn’t want to wake her so quickly, she was scared and woke up swinging or screaming. Her eyes grew big when she came to and realized someone had their hand over her mouth. She had a knife in her hand reaching to saw at the arm of the person holding her when she finally figured out it was Randy. He watched in relief as she lowered the knife and became aware of the sounds from the front of the store.
Zombies! (Book 3): Violence Solves Everything Page 14