During the second day of cleaning, JR was using a long handled scrub brush with soapy water to scrub dirt and smoke residue from the stone fireplace. The other walls and floorboards had been cleaned of dirt and smoke residue accumulated over the years because of the habits of the old bachelor who lived there. The fireplace was built of native rock cemented together and had an open firebox area three feet wide by four feet high. Sam was relieved to discover an adjustable cast iron damper built into the flue section.
As she scrubbed vigorously on the left side near the log wall, she saw a stone move slightly. She would tell Sam it needed resealing. Looking closely, she noticed the approximately eight inch by eight inch stone wasn’t set in concrete. It had been shaped to fit the opening tightly. It extended slightly past the stones on either side, so she was able to grip it with her fingertips and jiggle it loose to remove it. A flashlight lit the interior and revealed a large, open space. Several leather pouches with rawhide drawstrings at the top were visible. A stack laid flat in the back of the opening and seven stood upright and heavy near the front. Upon opening one, she stared and then yelled for Sam to come look. Gold nuggets and granules shimmered when Sam poured some into his palm. He poured the gold back into the sack, then grabbed JR and danced wildly around the room. After finishing their jubilation, they guessed there must be ten to twelve pounds of gold in the cache. Sam guessed the value at recent prezombie prices could be around a quarter of a million dollars. After cleaning the exterior around and above the opening, the stone was refitted in the hole.
They continued cleaning and repairing the cabin for three days before moving anything from the truck, camper, or enclosed trailer. Near dark every night Sam began Smokey’s obedience training over short periods using the choke chain.
Wanting a change of pace, Sam said, “Today I want to drive around the area and visit local ranches and farms. Hopefully most of the domestic animals were released before people left the area. But if the owners were attacked and turned before they could leave, animals could still be penned and need to be released. If they can survive the winters in the wild and become free ranging animals, they’ll be a source of future food for us. From what I’ve previously read online, all the domestic species should fare well here. The real danger is they tend to overpopulate and encourage the overbreeding of predators, like wolves, mountain lions, and wolverines. Cows are large and slow and are the first of the free range domestics to be cut back to a manageable size by predators. Pigs will also adapt readily as do chickens and ducks.”
JR laughed. “Thank you, Mr. Radio Announcer for the local farm report.” She shook her head amazed at the varied amount of miscellaneous information he retained.
Carcasses of horses and cattle still in barn stalls were found at the first farmstead they visited. They were disgusted by the sight and left without scavenging the other buildings.
At the second farm they visited, livestock was still penned beside a small barn. Three horses, nine cows, and two young bulls hugged the fences when they approached. All were scrawny and clearly hadn’t been fed or watered for at least several weeks or more. Hay racks, feed troughs, and a long stock water tank were empty. Feed and water were nearby but well away from the famished animals. Sam and JR pumped water by hand and threw hay bales into the pens, then opened the gates and secured them open. They found the same conditions at the pig pens. Sam spotted an elevated diesel tank and checked it for water before topping off the truck’s tank. He approached JR. “We’ll have to remember these fuel tanks are available and a backup supply when the tank at Charlie’s place is emptied, which will be soon; we’re not the only ones using from it. Most of the farms and ranches had diesel equipment, so diesel tanks should be plentiful. To that end, when we’re in Kalispell, I’ll pick up several cases of fuel additive to use as the fuel ages.”
“Is water in the fuel when it’s delivered? Why does it always need to be checked?”
Sam pointed to a pipe sticking above the top of the tank with a gooseneck on the end. “That’s a vent line—all tanks have them. When the sun shines on the tank the fuel expands, and vapor is driven out. At night it cools, shrinks, and pulls moist air in. Then the moisture condenses, and water eventually collects in the bottom of the tank. Even when fuel is drained to be used, air is drawn into the tank to replace the volume of liquid removed. With underground tanks it’s much the same, but additionally pinholes can leak ground water into them.”
“Humm. Makes sense. Let’s check out the rooms in the barn, then the sheds before we go through the house.”
In a tack room Sam found three saddles, blankets, and sets of bridles and tossed them and the saddle racks they were on in the truck bed. He was planning ahead to when fuel supplies were exhausted, and they’d need to use horses for transportation and work. When that happened, they would have additional work building barns and corrals.
JR scattered cracked corn to draw a small flock of free ranging chickens in close enough to catch them. She captured six hens and two roosters and tied their legs together with twine to transport them home. Sam giggled when he heard her cursing as the hens pecked her hands and arms and the roosters raked her with their spurs. Several bags of chicken feed joined them in the truck bed. She was exhausted from the intense exercise of grabbing chickens that didn’t want to be caught. She’d had to put Smokey in the truck because he was no help at all and had fun chasing the chickens away.
Inside the house JR scoured the kitchen for necessary items. She gathered spices, cookbooks, miscellaneous cooking tools, and canned and boxed foods. She lusted over the useless stainless steel electrical appliances setting on the countertop. Hand towels and wash cloths were placed on the kitchen table to claim. Sam found several military style rifles and a supply of ammo for them in a small closet that had been converted to a gun cabinet. Most of those would be saved with his existing stash of extra firearms to be traded in the future. He realized he would need to be careful of who they were sold to. Criminals could use the guns to return and rob or kill them.
They stopped at four more farms and ranches and had the truck bed stacked full when they arrived at the camper shortly before dark. The cabin was crowded when they hauled their newly claimed booty there the next morning. JR put pans of feed and water out before releasing the chickens so they wouldn’t wander away too far.
Early one cool morning when thick fog hung in the air, they drove to Kalispell. At a trailer outlet where the dual gates stood wide open, Sam took a sixteen foot dual axel, open utility trailer. JR noticed the office door had been kicked in and the interior trashed. They left there and drove to a building supply outlet. Several times they passed pickups with two or more men in them. Occasionally there were one or several females with the men. Most were grim and only a few waved in a friendly manner. The only zombies they encountered had been shot and left to rot where they fell.
Before reaching the home improvement warehouse, he said he wanted to take the sniper rifles in with them instead of leaving them in the back window of the pickup where passersby could see them and be tempted to steal.
In the warehouse behind the retail section, they claimed a 10’x12’ precut wooden shed kit, and a precut 8’x10’ wooden shed kit to convert to a chicken house. Five sheets of plywood were loaded for the solid floor under the shed. Sam found a forklift with the key in it to load the packaged buildings. The battery wasn’t fully charged but it had enough juice left to load their materials. Soon the batteries would be dead and any items they wanted would have to be loaded by hand.
To the load he added ten sheets of one inch thick insulation board on top of the shed packages to insulate the chicken house. Inside the main store, they loaded a shopping cart with four cases of expanding foam caulk for inside joints and six cases of acrylic caulk made specifically for cabin joints on the cabin’s exterior. In the feed section they claimed six, fifty pound bags of chicken feed to winter the chickens. Smokey was taken care of when JR loaded ten bags of premium dog food. T
hey located the aisle with premade plastic nesting boxes for the hens and took a dozen of those and three plastic watering containers. Walking by a rack of do it yourself project books, Sam spotted several that interested him. Books on mixing and pouring concrete, building meat smokers, and making and installing cedar roof shingles went in their carts.
They were ready to move into the cabin, so a stop at a bedding store gave them a premium mattress & box springs for the fancy brass trimmed antique standard sized iron bed. Their confiscated loot was stacked high and bungeed tightly after they felt the trailer was fully loaded.
At two pharmacies JR gathered five gallon buckets of over the counter and prescription medicines and birth control pills. She grinned and blushed as she passed on Viagra; She silently thought. “Sam doesn’t need any help with that; he’s like the Energizer Battery Bunny.” The stores had been thoroughly ransacked; most of the prescription pain relievers and all the beer and liquors were long gone.
At home they moved the feed inside the enclosed trailer. It would remain there until the shed was assembled. But the bedding was hauled to the cabin that evening and would be left in the plastic wrappings until the cabin was ready to move into.
Ten days passed as they worked from dawn to dusk finishing repairs to the cabin and assembling the storage shed and a chicken house. Two days of intermittent rain showers with gusty winds confined them to work on the interior of the cabin and take unscheduled play time. Several times Smokey was rudely pushed outside to fend for himself while the lovers made use of the new mattress and box springs laying on the wood floor.
Sam had installed a two inch diameter wide angle fisheye viewer in the thick slab door because there were no windows in that wall. Now, they could see what was near the door before it was opened. The interior of the cabin was just inches over twenty-four feet square— or almost square—when measured with a tape measure.
JR created a kitchen area near the winter meat freezer. A table with a cutting board and large plastic pan for dishwater would suffice for the present time. During their first winter, Sam promised to install solid wood base and wall cabinets to replace the table.
Their full sized bed sat in the southwest corner. Two antique wooden rockers, the rough built upright cabinet, and a side table were the only other furniture original to the cabin.
Sam promised JR he’d build a large storage closet with two doors in a corner to hold some of the miscellaneous items piled around the room on the floor because there was no shelving to store them. She agreed vertical shelves would be a godsend for organization until the kitchen cabinets were installed.
Smokey’s obedience training via the choke chain was progressing far better than Sam had hoped for. JR didn’t agree with that method; she felt it was cruel, but Sam convinced her it was best for Smokey’s safety. He needed to be taught to obey commands and not attack blindly and noisily in dangerous situations. With that rational, she agreed to take part so Smoky would also obey her when they were alone.
At night they discussed and practiced personal defensive moves and training. A full year earlier Sam brought several books on special forces training, motivation, and fighting. He read all of them before enrolling for six months of martial arts training in Israeli Krav Magna. He had to stop the twice weekly routine when his instructor left to go north ahead of the zombie invasion he also believed was coming. The man’s timing was fortuitous; he crossed the border two months before the crossings were closed.
One bright but cool afternoon, the couple made another trip to Charlies for lumber. They agreed the supply was somewhat depleted from their last forage run. Others were obviously taking what they needed too. Sam commented, “That’s a good sign of people working to survive and build a future for themselves. I like the idea of having solid neighbors who are planning to stay in the area.” JR paused a moment. “I wonder if Charlie made it across the border into Canada. I hope he’s alright; he’s a good, kind, generous person.”
Finally the chicken house with roosts and a dozen nesting boxes was completed. When the storage shed was assembled, they spent several long workdays moving most of the remaining supplies from the camper and trailers to the shed. They were officially moved in. One evening Sam took five, one hundred dollar bills from his billfold, which he’d stopped carrying weeks earlier. They were arranged in a wide fan pattern and pinned to the wall high above the door. They would serve as a constant reminder of better times and what the zombies took from them.
Clouds filled the afternoon sky and a hint of rain was in the heavy air. Sam and JR heard a distant engine on the trail to the cabin. It was a first; no one had visited them before. A couple riding a black four wheeler stopped when the cabin came into view. They sat for at least a minute with the engine idling before approaching the cabin. The machine sped at Sam aggressively and stopped abruptly five feet from him. The late twenties man driving was surly while the woman was silent but frowned at them from the beginning. She looked anxious and preoccupied.
The man exited the four wheeler, walked to stand in front of it, and faced Sam aggressively. He was tall and wiry with several day’s growth of facial hair and long straggly brown hair to his shoulders. “I’m Tom Metcalf and this is my partner Stacy. Who are you?” Stacy jumped from the ATV and silently fidgeted by clenching and unclenching her hands.
Sam didn’t offer to shake hands and stood his ground. He didn’t like Tom’s brash, confrontational attitude. “Sam Boyle and my wife JR. What can I do for you?” JR smirked; she instantly liked the elevation of their relationship. Stacy focused on her with animosity from her medium height chunky build. JR thought she could be cute if she took better care of herself.
Tom said, “What are you doing trespassing on my land? I own this property, and you have to leave immediately because you’re trespassing on private ground.”
From what Charlie told them, Sam knew Tom was a liar. “Show me your bill of sale.”
“I don’t carry it around with me, but I bought it about six months ago from the old guy who lived here then.”
JR picked up on Sam’s bluff and shivered as if too cool. She stepped inside the cabin and slipped a lightweight jacket on. She drew her sidearm and put it in her right jacket pocket with her index finger alongside the frame. She couldn’t envision the confrontation ending well because of the visitor’s attitude and the lies Tom was telling. Once again an evolving situation was sure to end violently.
She stepped outside and heard Sam say, “Thaddeus Pohlman owned the property when I bought it three years ago. He died a year later: he’s been dead two years and was dead and buried long before you say you bought the property from him. I have a signed and notarized quick claim deed from Mr. Pohlman for 360 acres and the cabin. It was registered with the county recorder of deeds.” Sam pointed at the edge of the clearing. “That rough crucifix is where he’s buried.” JR had stopped to stand fifteen feet to Sam’s left so they weren’t a bunched up easy to hit target.
Sam pushed the issue. “Now you two can get your slimy, lying asses off OUR property and don’t come back or there’ll be trouble. There’s nothing to discuss because this is our home.”
Stacy spoke loudly, “Thaddeus Pohlman was my uncle, and for all I know you might have killed him last week and buried him out there. This was to be my property through inheritance, and you two are leaving. If it weren’t for the zombies, I’d have the Sheriff arrest you and put you in jail.”
“But there isn’t a Sheriff, so we need to settle this issue ourselves.” Sam added, “I hope we can do it peacefully.”
Sam had a sudden thought and faced Stacy. ”If you were so close to your uncle, why didn’t you visit him during the past two years to check on the old man? He died alone two years ago, and you haven’t been here until today. Now, get off our property. The discussion is over.”
Tom glared and shifted his weight nervously from one foot to the other as his hands clenched and opened.
Sam smiled grimly. “Everything I’ve s
aid is true and both of you lied about your ownership. The way you’re working yourselves into a frenzy isn’t going to end well, so I’m telling you again to get off our property before this confrontation turns ugly.”
The liars were working themselves up for a showdown. Smokey heeled by JR and growled.
Tom’s face was red when he glanced at Stacy for support. She hesitated, then nodded in a slight movement.
Sam was focused on Tom’s actions, but JR saw Stacy’s slight signal and moved her index finger to take up the play in the Glock’s trigger. She took a deep breath and exhaled partially. Loudly she said, “Please leave peacefully before you get hurt.”
Tom ignored her and grabbed at his weapon first. As his hand flashed to pull his weapon from a belt holster, JR didn’t hesitate. She fired from the hip before he could raise his handgun. From fifteen feet Tom was hit in the thigh and stomach with two out of three shots. Stacy quickly followed with a revolver and JR shot her twice in the stomach. Both liars were surprised at her quick reaction and hesitated a split second when they were shot while Sam pulled his gun and shot both of them as JR continued shooting through her jacket until both intruders fell dead.
JR yelled, “Damn it, god damn it,” as she pulled her hand from the pocket and shook it wildly and then licked it.
As Sam ran to her, he asked, “Are you hurt?”
“Yes. Those damn shell casings burned my hand; they’re hot trapped in my pocket.”
He chuckled, then turned serious. “Thanks for your backup. I’m sorry that had to happen.” He embraced her and they hugged, “Those two were set on running us off or killing us.” He shook his head dismissively. ‘Plumb stupid. We’re lucky Charlie told us about Pohlman dying two years ago and his brother not wanting anything to do with him. I suppose Stacy just now thought about Thaddeus and didn’t expect anyone else to know about his remote homesite.”
Running To Escape: A Sam & JR Zombie Thriller Page 14