Anyway, Mike pointed out that if we do it to one, we might as well do it to the other. In case we lose a wagon. He’s out there right now working on it. He took Abby and the guys with him. He’s planning on getting them started learning the basics of wagon maintenance - or, in Abby’s case: the difference between a wrench and a screwdriver.
I’m trying to figure out what we’re going to do for dinner. Karla says there’s some ground beef in the freezer that should be used up before we leave, and we have some flour and bread. I could make ground beef gravy. It’d be easy enough to heat up in the morning too. Jason and Karla both say they’ve never even heard of it, so it’ll be something new for them.
Okay, not sure what the fuck happened, but Abby just came tearing in and asked Karla about shower rods?
* * *
8:48pm
Abby is brilliant. The shower rods are for hanging up laundry. Something I completely forgot about. I thought of washing the dishes, but clothes? Oops? So now we have to figure out who will be doing the clothes washing, too. Abby suggested adding it to the whole ‘taking care of the kids’ job detail, but Mike vetoed it. He argued that it shouldn’t just be the women doing the cooking and cleaning. Dave and Scott agree, surprisingly enough. So now we’re supposed to work out some kind of system for them all to take turns. Abby still gets the final say in the kids stuff, except for with Chloe. Dave is still her father, so unless he’s doing something that will put her at risk, he gets to make decisions for her.
Ben suggested that whoever isn’t on watch duty that night has to do the washing, and we’ll just cycle it out. Karla suggested putting the kids to work, too, with the wringing them out and hanging them up. I suppose that’ll work. We can certainly give it a try anyway.
We went through the bags of supplies we brought with us, sorting out what would go in the wagons and what will be carried in backpacks.
A lot of crap is being left behind. Karla pointed out that razors aren’t that important, but Mike suggested taking them apart and embedding them into the baseball bats. I was worried about trying to handle the razors for it (seems like a bit too much work, for too little of a payoff), but between the hammer and pliers he brought out, it was nothing. He finished all four of the bats before dinner was done cooking. She also suggested ditching the bottle of vitamins, but Abby vetoed that one. Those are going in her bag. We’re all going to carry a gallon jug of water with us and a little jar of bleach. I borrowed a sharpie marker to write down how to use the bleach to clean the water on each jar. The little kids are only carrying a couple bottles of water, instead of a jug. They’re not quite big enough to be carrying a gallon on their own.
We ditched a lot. I had thrown in some silverware for eating with, you know? But Mike pointed out that it’s not like they’re hard to replace, and it’d be better to keep a bare minimum. He also took a page out of my book and made a couple knife belts for the rest of the group. The belts aren’t as big as the one I have, so we couldn’t fit hammers in them, but we managed to fit about 4 sharp knives in each one.
The glue gun is gone - it was useless without power anyway. The cans of bug repellent got mostly spread out among us, same with the sun screen. Until we know the virus or whatever isn’t spread via mosquitoes, we’re not taking any chances. The sun screen is more for comfort than anything else. No one wants to try carrying a backpack on sunburned shoulders. We turned on our phones long enough to program our numbers in them, and make sure they’re all on silent, then turned them all back off.
Mike nixed the inflatable mattress idea. He says the wagons are too heavy. Even unloaded, it wouldn’t work, so here’s hoping we’re able to avoid rivers and crap.
Karla had Mike and Ben help her dump boxes out so we could use them for the supplies, instead of just tossing a bunch of plastic bags in the back of the wagons. The boxes are just plain cardboard, but it’s still a step up from the bags. Plus, they’re nowhere near as noisy.
Jason suggested labeling the boxes with things him and Timmy will understand. Like, the “dinner” box has all the stuff for eating. The bowls, silverware, camping pots and pans, can opener, etc.. The “ow” box is the meds and first aid kits. “Clean up” has the different soaps. The rest of the boxes were a bunch of misc crap, so we just wrote the contents on the side. Jason is pretty good at reading and sounding out the words he doesn’t know yet.
We didn’t bother boxing up the sleeping bags and tents. We’ll be using that stuff the most, so all that needs to go in last anyway.
I’m glad we have the second wagon. The water jugs and food boxes are already taking up a lot of room, but we kinda need them. The toolbox isn’t huge, but it’s heavy. Karla says we can ditch the cooler once we finish with the food in it. It just takes up too much room, and it’s heavy as fuck. We have to pull these wagons ourselves, so we don’t want to weigh them down too much.
There’s also the question of the terrain we’ll be going through. When I moved to NYC, I flew in. My dad packed up the moving truck and drove it up to me, so I have no idea what we’re headed into. Mike says the area here is a bit rough cause we’re on the coast. I don’t imagine the path south is going to be any easier. The wagon bottoms are metal. If they break, we’re screwed seven ways to Sunday. I’m hoping we’ll come across a couple horses we can steal/borrow/barter for. Not holding my breath though.
The rain stopped around 5, I think. We’re debating leaving tomorrow, and just sticking to the paved roads for now. There’s a harbor south of us we’re going to try and get to. It’s a long walk ahead of us, but it’d be even longer to have to go around the Chesapeake. It’ll really suck if we get there and there’s no boats. There’s a bridge further south, but again: bridges = bandits = NO.
We’ll just have to wait and see, I guess.
I have last watch tonight, so I’m off to bed. See you tomorrow.
* * *
April 27th
7:46am
The only drawback to being on last watch is that once people start waking up, it’s time to get breakfast going. We’re just having warmed up ground beef gravy, but still.
Mike and I talked it over while we were on watch. We’re gonna go ahead and get a move on today. He used to live down near the harbor, and it’s a good two hour drive, at least. Walking is going to take a couple days, especially if we only travel during the day. We’re giving Abby and Ben about another hour before we wake them up. We want to be on the road by ten. That only gives us about 8 hours of light to work with.
The kids are awake. Jason has them getting their gear rolled up and on the wagon. I told them they could have breakfast as soon as they’re done. Mike volunteered to get their food warmed up. I told him about this journal, and he thinks it’s a good idea. He doesn’t have anything to add to it, since him and Karla just hightailed it to the water, but he likes the idea that someone is keeping a record of what’s going on.
The sun is shining. You’d never know it was raining cats and fucking dogs just yesterday.
Abby is awake. Time to fill her in on the plan.
* * *
1:23pm
Ben gave me his watch. Said I have more use for it than he does. Seems like everyone is all in for this record/journal thing to be done.
We’ve stopped to give the kids a break. Jason is doing fine so far, but Timmy is tired and Chloe is getting a bit stir crazy in the wagon.
We haven’t ran into any trolls yet, but we’re also not in an area with a lot of houses, so that was kinda expected. The roads have been deserted so far too, so we’ve made really good time. If the roads stay clear, and still no trolls, we might keep moving on after sunset. We’re still deciding on that one. It seems a bit too risky to be moving after dark, but at the same time, we need to cover as much distance as we can.
There really isn’t much to talk about here. We’re walking. And talking. Kinda. We’re all a little too tense to talk much, but we’re all learning a little more about each other as we go.
Abby’
s ex-husband lives out in California. He had never wanted kids in the first place, so when they divorced, she got full custody. Her family lives in Wisconsin (or Wyoming, I forget. One of the ‘W’ states out west.), so she’s been on her own for the past three years. Working two jobs, and juggling the boys school and baseball practices. I don’t think I’d be able to do it. I’d lose my fucking mind. It explains why her boys are so good though. They've had an amazing role model.
Chloe is a good kid too, just...a handful. I still don’t know the story there, Dave and Ben have been using the bikes to check out the area ahead. They’re about a mile down the road right now, taking their own break while they wait for us to catch up.
Scott is chaffing at the bit. Timmy and Chloe are switching places for a little while. Time to get moving again.
* * *
7:30pm
We’re stopped for the night. The kids were driving us insane. I didn’t bother trying to write every time we stopped. It was fucking ridiculous. We’re not even out of fucking Delaware yet. We’re squatting in a house again. Power is out here, too, but they have a generator. We’re charging the phones and the bluetooth sets.
At least we don’t have to worry about the owners of this place coming back unexpectedly. They were shuffling around in the master bedroom. Scott and I got rid of them.
I wish we could study the trolls better. Get an idea of how they hunt. From what the coast guard guy said, it sounds like they hunt by smell, but how does that even work? The only thing we know for sure is that it’s not vision.
Our wagons are in the garage. There were a couple cars in there we had to move first, but it’s better than leaving the wagons out in the open. I’m wondering if we can hitch the wagons to the back of the car and just ride in the car for a while? I know I said I wanted to stay offroad, but it would get us off the peninsula faster, and I’m all for that...gonna have to talk it over with Mike tonight while we’re on first watch. See what he thinks of the idea.
The sun is down. Abby and Jason are getting the kids ready for bed. Mike is watching out the back window. I have the front window. It’s damn near impossible to see with all the trees, but we haven’t seen anyone all day, so I’m not really stressing. According to Mike, the area isn’t all that populated anyway. He’s worried about the harbor we’re headed for, but there’s not much we can do. We have to get off the peninsula. And I really do not want to have to walk all the way around the bay. Just...no.
* * *
April 28th
12:46am
Woke Scott and Dave up for their watch. They had another idea. They’ll take the cars from out front and drive up to check out the path on their own. If the area is overrun, they’ll call us and haul ass back this way so we can be ready.
If it’s not, they’ll come back anyway, and take Mike and Karla back to their house to get their cars. Mike has a truck he can load the wagons on, and Karla has an SUV.
Scott’s already checked the fuel gauge in the car outside and it’s full. We’re waking up Karla and Ben to take over watch. Mike and I are gonna get what sleep we can.
* * *
3:23am
Take the good with the bad, I suppose.
Cape Charles is out. That’s the bad news (part 1).
Dave said they got about halfway there, and ran into a bunch of abandoned cars. When they were backing up, they found out there were trolls surrounding them. Scott said they made a nice ‘thump thump’ sound as he ran them over.
He’s really starting to grow on me.
Here’s the good: Mike had them check out another town further up the coast. Fucking jackpot.
The road was clear of cars (there were some trolls on the highway, but not enough to be a problem if we’re in cars.
THEY FOUND A BOAT.
It’s just a small boat, but it’ll get us across the bay. It’s going to be cramped as fuck, but it’s better than what we have right now.
Bad news (part 2): The trolls did enough damage to the car the guys were in that they don’t feel safe driving it back all the way. Abby and Jason are going to get the kids up and ready. Ben and I are going to take the bikes and ride over to Mike’s house. We’ll drive the cars back here, pick up everyone/everything and get on the road. Mike and I will sleep on the road.
April 29th
12:53am
Let’s not do that again.
I’m not sure where we are. I know we’re on the other side of the bay, but that’s it. We’re in a house again. I just woke up. Mike is still sleeping. I’m not sure where Abby is, but I imagine she’s still out as well.
I will try to go over what all happened, but there's a lot to talk about and I was pretty dead on my feet most of the time, so some of it is a bit fuzzy. Bear with me here…
After the talk with Dave and Scott, Ben and I hopped on the bikes. It took us about an hour to get to Mike’s house. The ride back to the others went much faster. Mike and Karla had told us where to find the keys, so I went inside to grab those while Ben threw the bikes in the bed of the truck. I think what took the longest was getting the kids situated and the wagons in the bed with the bikes. We got it all taken care of though, and then Abby and Karla took over driving.
Note to self: never let Abby drive again.
She’s used to driving in NYC, and it shows. She saw a gas station and just about dumped me out of my seat. We added to our ramen and canned food stock, so I’m not entirely pissed off about it, but damn, woman! A little warning?!
We came across a couple other gas stations on the way, enough that it’s going to be a challenge to pack it all up, but still a good thing. None of us are hunters, so we have to make do with what we have. I just wish the cans weren’t so heavy.
We weren’t able to drive the whole way. The little car Scott and Dave took had a full tank of gas. The truck and SUV? Eh, about half a tank? Each? We checked the pumps at the stations, but they weren’t working, so we ended up walking a good 4 miles before Scott called asking what the hell was taking so long. He drove the car out to meet us, we used the cords to tie the wagons to the back of the car, and we stuffed ourselves in the car. We had to go really slow, and we were all piled in on each other, but it was still faster than walking.
When we got to the boat, we had another dilemma. It was too small for all of us to fit all at once. It took some figuring, but we finally came up with a plan.
The boat didn’t have a full gas tank, but Scott figured there would be just enough for 2 trips across the bay and back. The bay is big, but not too big, as he put it. He didn’t want to risk taking the kids in case something happened, so he took the big guns. Dave, Mike, Ben, and Karla. Okay, so Karla isn’t a “big gun”, but he was trying to take as many people as he could all at once, without leaving the kids undefended. So he got all the adults except for Abby and I, basically.
Normally, that would’ve set up a red flag, but he left Chloe with us and the supplies, so I let him go.
He came back, ugh, about two hours later? Somewhere in there. Had Ben with him. We loaded up the wagons, and Timmy and Jason went with him this time. Found out later, Jason snuck one of the molotovs with him. Scott said they tried to leave him with Karla when they unloaded the wagons, but he refused. Said that he was going to make sure Scott went back for his mama, and if Scott tried to pull anything funny, he’d throw the bottle right at his head and let him burn.
So yeah. Scott let him come along for the ride back. You should’ve seen him. He came off of that boat looking all triumphant like he just won an epic battle or something, and told Abby what he’d done.
Then Abby puts on the “mom” face and asked him where the hell he got a lighter. Wiped that smile right off his face. Apparently Scott neglected to inform him that the molotovs require a lighter or a match to actually work.
I think Scott redeemed himself though. He had Jason gather a bunch of rocks while the rest of us loaded up the bags from the gas station, and went over some tips of how to use the cocktails (pro ti
p 1 (according to Scott): don’t aim for the head. Small target, and the person can just duck. Aim for the ground in front of the person. The liquid goes everywhere, and if you’re lucky enough to get right at the feet, then the person has more to worry about than you running away).
I think they went over it a bit more, but I spent most of the time drifting in and out while we were on the boat. Woke up real quick when I heard the gunshot though.
We found a few more survivors. Or, rather, they found us.
It wasn’t a pleasant meeting (in case you couldn’t tell from the gunshot). All that time I was worried about bandits on the bridges and tunnels, and we managed to find them in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay.
Abby got Chloe down on the floor behind her, Ben and Scott had Jason behind them, and I got shoved in behind Jason, which, normally would’ve pissed me off, but it put me closer to the box of molotovs, so hey. Win.
I couldn’t make out all that was said, but I got the gist. They wanted our food. Obviously we couldn’t just hand it over...we need our food. Scott tried offering a couple cartons of cigarettes instead. Asshole-in-Charge counter-offered with a bullet. I lit one of the molotovs and handed it to Jason so I could get another one ready. I had just grabbed the next one when I heard another gunshot. Abby screamed and Jason kinda freaked out.
One minute, he was crouched down next to me, the next, he was past Ben and Scott, and the molotov was flying through the air.
No wonder that boy was the pitcher on his team. He’s got an arm on him, and his aim is spot on. It reached all the way to the other boat, hit the ground at Asshole’s feet and shattered. There was a lot of shouting and people scrambling on the other boat. Scott took advantage of the distraction and got us out of there. Ben yanked off his shirt and wrapped it around Abby’s arm to stop the bleeding. I held onto Ben with one arm, and the side of the boat with the other. We bounced around so much, we lost a bag of food from the gas station, but we got to shore in (mostly) one piece.
The Survivor Chronicles | Book 1 | Say No! To Zombies Page 5