by Brian Parker
“Well, we have a contingency plan for things like this,” he replied. “You already know that we have that barbed wire beside the road, ready to stretch into place. We just leave it down in case cars or something come by.”
“That hasn’t happened in months, maybe not even in a half a year,” she reminded him.
“Well, we can always be hopeful that the government is actually doing something like they say they are in that broadcast. Anyways, I had Jesse and Scott stretch that wire across the road, to stop them. Once they get themselves all tangled up, then we go up and knock them upside the head, just like we do at the back forty fence. Easy as pie.”
Sally nodded her head and pulled a biscuit from the pan that someone had reheated on the stove. As she chewed, a thought occurred to her. “Grandpa?”
“Yes, dear?”
“The fences in the fields that we rely on are secured to metal poles every eight or ten feet.”
“Depending on the field, sure,” he replied.
“So that keeps the wire in place. There’s nothing like that on the wire across the road. What’s gonna keep them from just piling up on top of the wire to collapse it and then the other infected will just walk across the ones that are tangled up?”
“Hmmm… Like the gooks used to do in ’Nam,” he grunted, still clinging to old racial slurs, regardless of how much the girls told him that he shouldn’t say them anymore. “They would have two or three privates throw themselves on the concertina wire and then the rest of ’em would run across their backs. That’s some damn fine thinking, girl.”
“So what do we do about it?”
“Well, we gotta get to them before they get to us now, don’t we?”
“I, uh… I guess so.”
“You eat some breakfast, get your energy up. We’re gonna be doing a lot of close-in work this morning that will use up your reserves pretty damn quick.”
Sally smirked. “Remember when we were kids and you used to say “PDQ” instead of actually saying the words? What happened?”
Grandpa pushed himself up from the table. “The Good Lord told me that a few little words won’t mean much during the Trials of the Tribulation. And this, missy, is a very big trial.” He pulled his old Carhart jacket on. “Did Jesse wake up Katie like I asked him to?”
“I think so. He was headed to her room when I came downstairs.”
“Good. I want her up in the lookout stand so John can help us down on the ground.”
“What about mom?”
He shrugged. “She’s as useless during all this as she always is. Maybe she can make us some lunch so we can go right from killin’ and haulin’ bodies to haulin’ corn stalks for the cattle.”
“When do you ever get to take a rest on this old farm, Grandpa?”
Sally and her grandfather both turned to regard Katie, who’d just asked the question from the doorway. “Well, now, look who decided to finally get out of bed.”
“Ha ha,” Katie groaned. “Seriously, I need a day off.”
“You’ll get a day off when you’re dead—Uh, sorry, girls. I didn’t mean it like that.”
“We know, Grandpa,” Sally assured him. “We appreciate everything you’re teaching us. It’s a lot of work, but when we’re all bundled up this winter with a nice, hot stew to eat, it’ll be worth it.”
Grandpa leaned over and kissed Sally’s forehead. “That’s my girl. I’m gonna go check on the boys’ hasty fence work before that mob gets here. Katie, I need you to go up and tell John that I need him down on the ground. You’re gonna go up there and keep an eye on things from up high. It’s important that you watch in all directions, not just what’s going on down at the road. We don’t need a bunch more infected to show up behind us while we’re dealing with the first group. Got it?”
“Yeah. I got it,” Sally’s younger sister replied.
Grandpa kissed her on the forehead as well. “Good girl. Now grab some breakfast so you can eat while you’re up there on the lookout stand.”
He walked over to the door and picked up the battered ballpeen hammer, his weapon of choice. “See you in a few minutes, Sally. Send Jesse out when you see him.”
“These things are pathetic,” Scott said, not meaning it as an insult. The mass of infected stretched across the road near the Campbell farm were in a truly sorry state. They all appeared to have suffered severe trauma, from broken hands and fingers to missing teeth.
“What is that?” Sally asked, thwacking what used to be a man against the side of his head with her bat. “I mean, why are all of their teeth missing?”
“Maybe they fell out because of poor nutrition,” Grandpa offered as he sunk his hammer three inches into the top of a head, causing it to collapse when the shards of skull pierced its brain. “Or maybe they were holed up in a chemical factory that caused their teeth to fall out.”
“It’s just weird,” Sally huffed, pushing her victim back with the end of the bat.
The infected were spread out along the thirty feet of fence. Parts of it were already beginning to collapse. It wouldn’t take much more for the fence to fall down completely, and then they were done for.
They fought valiantly, dispatching probably half of the infected when the first disaster struck. Jesse cried out, then pitched forward into the fence. Less than a second later the report of a gun echoed across the plains. Sally turned, staring up at the lookout nest where Katie was supposed to be. She wasn’t there.
“What the—”
Another gunshot sounded, impossibly loud after all the months of remaining silent. Scott was down, the infected in front of him tried unsuccessfully to grasp him with broken fingers.
“Run!” Grandpa shouted. “Get back to the house!”
Sally hesitated, looking at Jesse and Scott. “We can’t—”
“They’re gone,” he yelled, grabbing her jacket and pulling her off balance. His strength surprised her, giving her no option but to follow or fall.
She ran back toward the house. “What’s happening?”
“It was a trap. Somebody—”
Grandpa stumbled and fell. Sally stopped and tried to pull him back up. A large red stain was already beginning to spread across his tan jacket near his stomach. “Leave me, girl,” he hissed through clenched teeth. “Get to the safety of the house. Figure out where they’re attacking from… Kill them.”
“I can’t leave you.”
“Yes, you can. Now go!”
She leaned down to kiss him, tears blurring her vision. “I love you, Grandpa.” She pushed herself up and turned back to the house, then stopped.
John stood less than twenty feet away with his hands raised in the air. Sally wiped her eyes. The blurry shape of two men swam into her view. Both had rifles raised, aiming at John. Sally jumped when one of them shot the farmhand without warning. His body fell limp immediately, meaning they’d shot him in the head.
She considered running back toward the line of infected or even into the fields beside the road, but she didn’t stand a chance. She was ten feet from the nearest fence, and then it was a wide open space after the harvest. There was nowhere to hide.
If she didn’t do something fast, they would kill her just like they did John. “Shit,” she mumbled and turned to sprint toward the fields. She’d taken two, maybe three steps when she felt a sting in the back of her thigh. Her leg went numb, causing her to fall.
The pavement rushed up, and her face smacked against it, making her eyes water more than they already were. The numbing sensation spread up her leg into her stomach as she tried to crawl to the field. Where is Katie? she wondered. The girl should have been shooting at the men from the lookout.
“Here, dose her up with the chloroform while I go round up the livestock,” one of the men ordered. She reached back, feeling a feather or something similar sticking from her leg.
“Aww, come on! We got what we came for, Tim. Can’t we just leave those stupid things behind?”
The heel of a boot stomped down beside her f
ace and she felt herself lifted upward as one of the attackers grabbed her by the collar. A dirty handkerchief appeared and the hand holding it clamped down tight across her nose and mouth. The awful smell of something sweet mixed with chemicals invaded her senses and she tried not to breathe.
“No, I ain’t leavin’ them, asshole. It took me forever to pull all their teeth. These things are perfect for defense.”
“I’m gettin’ real tired of you talkin’ to me like that, Tim. One of these days—”
Sally thrashed her head violently, trying to break the hold that the man had on her, but it was no use. Her body forced her to take a deep breath, and then another.
“One of these days what, fucker? You wanna throw down with me?”
Slowly, her world faded to black.
20
* * *
HOOKER, OKLAHOMA
OCTOBER 29TH
“Alright, time to wake up,” Jake called across the gas station where they’d taken shelter the night before.
With over five hundred miles under their belt, the Stryker needed fuel and the jerry cans they’d strapped to the hull were empty as well. The big truck took diesel, which there was plenty of at the Love’s Travel Center near the little Oklahoma town of Hooker, so they decided that it was worth the risk to stop at the potentially crowded station.
It took a while for the soldiers to clear the parking lot, then the building itself, but it was worth it. They’d found very few of the infected, and only two of them inside, so the place was relatively untouched—by current standards. The fuel pumps were worthless without power, so Dickerson and Jake spent a good hour siphoning fuel from the tanks of the long-abandoned semi-trucks. The gas was old, but usable once they added fuel stabilizer that they found inside the station.
When Sidney had gone inside the building, she’d considered just going back to the Stryker to sleep. The food aisles of Love’s were a mess. Anything that could be smelled through the packaging had been torn into by the infected trapped inside. Of course, that was after what they’d done to the Subway sandwich shop. Sidney had made the mistake of walking over there to look for supplies, but the smell drove her away. It looked like the infected had lived in Subway for several months before moving into the main travel center.
Sidney turned over, crinkling the air mattress underneath her as she did. It was a new addition to her belongings, something she’d picked from the shelf only ten feet away. She pushed herself up awkwardly and went to the glass doors where the sodas and bottled waters were. The urge to pee was not quite as strong as her need for some type of sugar at the moment. Inside, she pulled out a room temperature iced frappuccino drink and checked the expiration date. It was two months past the use by date. On any other product she wouldn’t have cared, but the ingredients list said it contained reduced fat milk, which would be very bad for her and the baby if it was spoiled. She sighed and put it back, opting for a warm Dr. Pepper instead.
She sidestepped a couple of piles of feces in the aisle and pulled a sticky bun from the shelf. “Those things will go straight to your hips,” Jake chuckled, startling her as he came up beside her.
“Have you seen my hips?” she asked. “I could probably eat a bunch of these things and still be okay.”
“I think you look great.”
“Mmm hmm,” she mumbled. “How’s Carmen, lover boy?”
“She’s, ahh… She’s good.”
“What? I thought you two were a thing. Certainly seemed like it last night when you went to the showers.”
He coughed. “We were checking to see if there was any water pressure.”
“Was there?” she asked, already knowing the answer.
“No. The pipes must be burst somewhere.”
“Then what took you guys so long?” she laughed.
“There was… Okay, we were making out. There, is that what you wanted to hear?”
Sidney patted her stomach. “I get it. Stress relief and boredom. Hell, Caitlyn and Eric are humping every time we stop.” She leaned in close to him and whispered, “Be careful. She’ll be after you before too long.”
“Yeah, I kind of got that vibe.”
She opened the sticky bun and bit into it. Pre-outbreak, she would have ripped off a piece at a time, but it was just easier this way so she didn’t have to touch it. “So, what’s on the agenda, boss man?”
“I really wish you’d stop calling me that,” he groaned. She’d taken to referring to him as the boss man a few days ago. It got under his skin, so she kept at it.
“But you’re our fearless leader,” she mocked. “What would we do without your leadership, Jake?”
“Be stuck on Fort Bliss with the rest of them, waiting to die.”
She’d struck a nerve and decided to rein it in. Sometimes she forgot that he was only twenty-three. “Hey, I’m sorry, Jake,” she said, placing a hand on his forearm, which he’d crossed over his chest. “I’m just playing around. You’re doing an amazing job keeping us safe.”
“Thanks.”
“Uh oh. One word answers.” Damn, he must be really pissed. “Alright, I’ll stop calling you boss man. There, does that make things better?”
He nodded, frowning. “I think we keep heading north. Winter should be particularly hard on the infected since they wander around outside. The further north we can go, the better.”
“And you think staying on the highway is still the best bet?”
“Yeah. I think it’s a good route because we haven’t seen any survivors and hardly any infected along this road so far. They must have all gone toward the bigger population centers.”
“Or they starved to death,” she offered, remembering the images from the little lake town back in New Mexico.
“Yeah, maybe. We’re getting into cattle country and farmland, so they can eat the animals and grasses to survive. It’s not a pleasant way to live, but—”
“I stopped giving a shit about those things the moment Lincoln died,” Sidney interrupted him, adding a little bit of steel to her voice.
“Sorry,” he replied.
“Don’t be. You didn’t know him.”
He shrugged. “Well, it still sucks.”
When she didn’t reply, he continued. “Anyways, now that we’re getting to parts of the country where there is the potential for food, we need to be prepared that there are going to be many more of them than we saw out in the desert.”
She relaxed slightly. The guy was doing his best to keep them all alive. “Hey, Jake, I don’t fault you for getting with Carmen. You two seem great together.”
“Thanks,” he said, blushing.
Sidney bumped him with her shoulder. “So, when are we leaving?”
“We need to load the supplies we boxed up last night, but I was thinking we’d take off in a little less than an hour.”
“Okay, good. That’ll give me time to take a tub of baby wipes to the showers and clean up.”
“Alright. Need me to do anything for you?”
She laughed. “Like what, scrub my back?” She shot him a playful smile. “Are you trying to start a harem?”
“What? No… I meant do you need me to—” His ears burned a bright red and his cheeks flushed, easily giving away his Irish heritage.
“No. Thank you. I’m fine, Jake.”
Sidney turned and walked away, picking up a package of baby wipes as she passed them. She could feel Jake’s eyes following her. The slight smile she’d had before turned into a full grin as she rounded the corner to the bathrooms.
She’d lived for so long without being able to trust anyone. Was the young soldier someone whom she could trust and allow inside of her defenses?
Maybe. She’d already thrown her lot in with them regarding her and her baby’s life when they left Fort Bliss. However, the emotional scars from what she’d endured at the camp still ran deep. With time, and friendship, they would start to fade.
Until then, she’d remain cautiously optimistic that there were still good
people in the world. She just had to find them.
“What the hell do you make of that, sir?” Sergeant Wyatt asked, pointing at the rusted red Ford truck swerving down the highway toward them.
“I don’t know. Dickerson, pull over to the side of the road and drive forward slowly. Caitlyn, I need you to get on the fifty. Light ’em up if anything seems out of the ordinary.”
“Out of the ordinary? You mean like the first person we’ve seen for a week is a drunk driver swerving all over the place kind of out of the ordinary or something else?”
Jake grimaced. “Come on. You know what I mean.”
She dropped down inside the vehicle and slapped his boot. Over the intercom, she said, “Just messing with you. I’m on it.”
Dickerson did as he’d ordered, pulling the Stryker over onto the shoulder of the road and then began creeping forward at what Jake guessed was about five miles an hour. When they were within fifty feet of the truck, Dickerson stopped, allowing the driver to swerve his way to them.
From up in the TC hatch, Jake saw that it was an old man in the driver’s seat. His head kept falling forward and the truck would drift. Then he would snap his head back up and jerk the wheel, taking the truck back into the opposite lane. Jake waved his arms above his head and the truck stopped. He saw the old man’s hands shift the vehicle into park and decided to hop down.
“Cover me,” he said immediately before removing the combat vehicle crewman’s helmet with the integrated headphones and slapping his regular Kevlar helmet into place. If Sergeant Wyatt said anything to him about not going, then he didn’t hear her.
Jake raised the stock of his M-4 into his shoulder, but kept the barrel pointed toward the ground. “Let me see your hands!” he whispered harshly.
The old man raised them and then they disappeared into his lap. “Dammit,” Jake cursed, advancing rapidly to the side of the truck.
“Are you bitten?”
The man shook his head. That’s when Jake noticed the blood. “I said, did you get bitten by one of the infected?”
“No,” the man croaked. “Shot. The girls. Help.”