Infected: They Will Eat You!: A Story of Family Survival in a Zombie Apocalypse (22 page)

Going around Youngstown was worse. By the time we cleared the last Youngstown exit it was nearly eight and we were exhausted. I pulled out the atlas “Can we drive another half hour?” I asked, “I’d like to make it around here.” and pointed to a lake about fifteen miles ahead.

“If we need to we can. The boys can sleep if they need to and we can keep driving.”

“We need to stop soon it’s going to be dark and we have been making some noise so infected may be moving toward us. This just looks like a good place and there’s a lake.”

“OK, let’s go.”

In short time obstacles had thinned out and travel was less stressful. We made good time and arrived at the Lake Milton sign as dusk was setting in. We took the first exit and headed toward the lake.

“Water!” Jesse cried out cheerfully.

“Look for a place we can pull this monster into and we’ll stop.”

“There!” he said pointing at a boat dealership.

“Looks good.” I said and pulled to the side of the road.

We exited the RV watching for movement. “Get on up there and do your thing.” I instructed and Jesse scampered to the top of the RV rifle slung on his back.

“Caleb and I will check this place out. It looks like we can pull the RV through their dry storage.”

“I’ll stay with Jesse then.” responded Christine.

The area was clear of infected and the dry storage building was a pull through with large sliding doors on both ends and long enough for both vehicles. I drove the hummer around back and parked it at the front end of the building then circled the RV around and put it in place behind the hummer. We all had to muscle the rear door closed then the front, it would have been much easier with electricity.

“Perfect.” I said, “We can go in and out the office door if we need to and stay concealed when we’re inside.”

“Can we go to the water daddy?” Caleb asked.

“It’s getting dark…..” I started to say.

“AWW!” both boys complained.

“I was saying…..It’s getting dark but OK, but we need to make it quick.”

“YAY!!” they cheered.

“Take some soap and wash some of the
stank
off of ya.”

“OK!” they cheered again.

We walked across the road to the boat ramp and took turns bathing two by two. It was dark by the time we reached or evening’s sanctuary.

“I’m hungry.” Jesse said as he entered the RV.

“We need to eat and get to bed. It’s been a hard day and tomorrow could be just as hard.” I said.

We ate and the boys settled into bed. It took a whole sixty seconds for them to quiet down and fall asleep. Christine sat watching them while I went to the office.

There was a half a case of bottled water sitting on the floor next to the office desk so I took one and sat down on top of the desk looking out the window. It was dark, really dark and from my seat I could see the clear sky and stars, more stars than I had ever seen. “Beautiful.” I said to myself.

-——————————————

I opened my eyes and listened then sat up and looked around. My family was all asleep and it was dark in the RV. There was no sound other than some wind moving around the metal building we were parked inside. I swung my feet to the ground and moaned. I was tired and my back ached from driving and the bed.

Moving quietly I looked out all the RV windows. There was a glint of light coming from the office door window, “Must be light out.” I commented to no one.

Everything looked in place so I flipped on the headlights and looked some more. Being surprised by infected or anything was not what I wanted first thing in the morning, especially before I had a chance to pee.

I snatched up my rifle and opened the door slowly and scanned the building. Nothing. I stepped out, locked the RV door and walked to the office. It was an overcast morning and a little breezy. Boats were bobbing in the choppy water and pools of water dotted the parking lot. “Must have rained last night.”

There was no sign of living or dead so I walked outside and checked around the building. It felt good to walk around and the fresh air was better than a cup of coffee. Well, almost. It was certainly better than the air we left at home, that was getting rank. Either there weren’t many people here when it all hit or the lake helped defuse the odor of infected and corpses. Either way deep breaths of fresh air were a joy. I put a leash on Joey and walked him around outside. He crouched and tried to hide at first but got more comfortable when I sat down and stroked him.

It was nearly seven so I went back inside and started breakfast and coffee then sat down with the atlas and directions I printed before this thing began. It looked like we were about five hundred miles away from Farmer City. If we could average forty miles an hour and travel ten hours a day we’d be there tomorrow, four days early. If we averaged half that we would still be early. “Pretty good.”

“What’s pretty good? Christine asked startling me.

“We can be at our meeting point early if things go the way they have. Even if we slow to half what we did yesterday we’ll be there ahead of schedule.”

“That’s good. Yesterday wore us all out and it would be nice to not have to push.”

“I think we still need urgency, we don’t know what we will run into that could slow us down but it looks like we have a day, maybe two to spare. If we can make it into Indiana today before stopping we’ll be in good shape.”

“That doesn’t look very far to drive in a day. I’ll get the boys up so we can eat.”

During breakfast we talked about our plans and decided to indulge ourselves for a couple hours. This was a comfortable location and the boys were excited about the lake so we walked around and played in the water. By eight the wind had subsided and the sun had broken through the cloud cover. It was turning out to be a nice morning.

“Can we take a boat daddy?” Caleb asked.

“No, we don’t want to get stuck on the lake with a boat that stops and won’t start and since these have been sitting here for so long we don’t know how well they will work.”

“Can we take a canoe?” he asked.

“If you want to paddle around this area sure.”

We launched two canoes, the boys in one and Christine and I in the other, an arrangement that took some convincing, and paddled on the lake for an hour by that time we had explored the finger of the lake we were in and worked up a thirst.

“Look like we’ve attracted some attention.” I said pointing to an infected on the shore opposite the boat launch. “Guys, time to go.”

They looked over, nodded and started paddling. We didn’t see where the infected went but it had disappeared by the time we reached shore. “Pull the boats on shore and let’s get going.” I instructed.

There was far less arguing than in prezombie life, everyone did their job without fuss. Within minutes of exiting the lake we were opening the large dry dock door and driving away. We were becoming an efficient unit developing skills necessary if our family was going to survive.

Travel had become tedious. Our first day on the road was exciting and new, today we were tired and the travel became a chore. We took more and longer breaks and lingered at fueling stops. At times both boys were with me in the RV sleeping or reading leaving Christine alone. We had left the highway early in the morning and were traveling state and county roads. It was a more direct rout bypassing the larger cities. By night fall we pulled into a truck stop near Wabash, Indiana having made it further than I planned once again.

There were infected milling around the truck stop parking lot and there was no indoor place to park but we needed to stop and this offered a large supply of fuel. Caleb and I cleared the infected from the lot and from inside the building before parking the trucks. It was dark but we all needed to stretch our legs so we walked Joey around in the grass before going inside for the night.

-——————————————

“What day is it?” Caleb asked as we sat and watched Joey play with a grasshopper.

“Friday.” I answered, “Why?”

“No reason, I just didn’t remember.”

“We should get mommy and Jesse up.” I said standing.

“Can I stay here with Joey? He’s having fun.”

“Yeah, don’t go anywhere. I’ll get them up and start on breakfast then come back. I need to fill the tanks with fuel.”

“OK.”

Christine prepared food while Jesse and I filled the hummer. “We’ll do
the monster
when we’re done eating.” I told him. “How are you doing?”

“Good.” he gave his standard answer to that question.

“You alright with leaving?”

“Yeah, it was getting stinky and it was getting dangerous.” he paused a moment, “Where
are
we going?”

“I’m not sure, Montana maybe. Utah….somewhere there are fewer people and more game to hunt with wide open spaces so we can see things from way off.”

He smiled knowing I was thinking about his shooting.

“There’s antelope and mule deer and all kinds of game to hunt out west and we can shoot a thousand yards or more.”

“That sounds fun. If you don’t know where we are going why did we leave?”

“Have you ever just
known
something was right or wrong? You couldn’t explain it but you just knew?”

“I don’t know, maybe.”

“It will happen and if you listen, more times than not, that
knowing
will be right. Remember talking about the physical realm and the spirit realm?”

“Yeah, like the laws.”

“That’s part of it, worldly laws and spiritual laws, and to have worldly and spiritual anything that means there has to be worldly things and spirit things.
And
….there are worldly beings and spirit beings.”

“Like you say our body is a car being driven by a spirit.”

“Yeah, and if we listen to that spirit he will give us a lot of good information. That is why we left, I felt, I heard, it was important we leave.”

“OK.” he said cheerfully, “I’ll go help mommy with breakfast.”

We ate, fueled the RV and got underway by eight. We had no rush in us at the moment and were simply transitioning to the new world we were living in. There were hopes that we’d find friends and family at our rendezvous but after seeing the last few hundred miles my hope for that was fading.

-——————————————

Our day was uneventful and as I pulled into a grocery store parking lot, turned the engine off and went outside. “I’m tired and it’s getting dark.” I told Christine as she walked up, “We shouldn’t drive after dark anyway.”

“Then let’s stop. How much further do we have to go?”

“Probably two or three hours at the pace we’ve been going.”

“Then we’ll be there early in the morning.”

We pulled around behind the building so we wouldn’t be seen from the road and settled in for the night. There was a field next to us planted in soy. We could see deer feeding along the tree line on the far side and watched them until it got too dark, then went to bed.

-——————————————

The next morning Christine and I got up at first light and started driving leaving the boys sleeping. This was farm country and the roads were clear except for a vehicle here and there.

It was almost nine when we pulled under the overpass. There was no one in site but we were three days early. If others were coming and had as easy travel as we did we could have company today or tomorrow.

We all met on the road in the shade. “There’s a farm over there, we could check it out and see if it’s good for us to stay in.” I said pointing.

“Do you see anyone else?” Christine asked ignoring my suggestion.

“No, but we’re early. How about that farm, we can see this area from there.”

“Oh, OK.” she answered.

“Caleb and Jesse, scope out that farm.”

“There’s also a golf course over here and some houses.”

“How do you know that?” she asked.

“When I was looking at travel routs I printed maps of places we could stop. This is the first one we have actually used.”

“There’s nothing over there.” Caleb said.

“Let’s go see if it’s safe and if we want to stay there. Caleb go with your mom. I’ll pull up broadside to the house, you pull up to my right so you are shielded by the RV.”

When we got in place we exited staying behind the vehicles. “Anyone in the house?” I called out, “Anyone here?”

There was silence. “Anyone here……We are a family looking for rest.”

“Infected.” warned Jesse.

“Two.” added Christine.

Before anyone could say another word they were on the ground each boy shooting one.

“OK, there are infected around and maybe no people. Let’s be careful and watch out for both. We don’t want to shoot a friendly and don’t want to get shot or attacked by unfriendlies.”

Everyone nodded.

“Stay on me.” I said and started for the house.

Caleb shot an infected in the back yard as we neared the house. The front door was unlocked so I pushed it open. There was no movement or sound inside. “Caleb, with me, you two check the outside.” I instructed.

It was safer outside than inside and the last thing we needed was to be stumbling over each other in cramped quarters. I could see Christine and Jesse pass by windows as I entered the house. We worked our way through the first floor finding nothing. Caleb unlocked the back door and let the other two inside.

“Stay in the kitchen, I’m going to check the rest of the house.” I told them and went up the stairs.

The bedrooms looked like no one had slept there since this mess started. The dressers and closets were full of clothes and toothbrushes were still in the bathroom. Either people were still here and keeping a very tidy home or it was abandon. A full sweep of the upstairs, attic and basement proved the house was vacant.

“Now for the barns and out buildings. I’d like to get the vehicles hidden as quickly as possible.” I informed the others.

We found three more infected on the property before we were done, “That’s five, probably the ones who lived here. I’ll pull our trucks under that shed. We can use that truck to move the bodies and them.”

“Can we take Joey in the House?” asked Jesse.

“Of course. Make sure the doors are closed and he can’t get out. He’ll want to hide for a while and that’s fine.” Christine answered.