Infected: They Will Eat You!: A Story of Family Survival in a Zombie Apocalypse (30 page)

The dirt road turned out to be a long drive ending at a property littered with junked vehicles, broken down sheds and a house….of sorts. To my relief we were met with neither infected nor gun fire so we checked the buildings, all empty.

We drove around for three hours over hills and through ravines, along the creek and road and all we saw were antelope, rabbits and a few horses. This was turning out better than I had thought it would.

By one we were having lunch on the deck watching the goat and talking about our plans.

“I’m fine just relaxing for a few days.” I said, “I think we are all ready for some fun and this appears to be a good place to stay. In three or four days we can go toward town and see what’s there.”

“Can we ride the four-wheelers some more?” Caleb asked.

“Yeah!” encouraged Jesse.

“We can, and we can see if we can gather up the horses and ride them. Caleb and I didn’t look but I’m sure there’s tack out at the barns.”

“I want everyone to stay close around the houses until we know more and no riding those things without daddy.” Christine ordered pointing toward the four-wheelers.

“Yeah, you guys aren’t going to just take off on the quads or even on foot.” I agreed, “Stick close and keep your eyes open. Something could still come in here and we want to be ready.”

We spent the next three days making the farm house ours, Christine took care of inside, the boys and I the yard. About a quarter acre around the house was fenced and we mended two places where it was down then gathered four more goats we found wondering around up the holla.

We explored the area on quads and on foot looking for any sign of living or infected but found none. Each day we traveled a little further out discovering springs and creeks and cliffs overlooking landscape new to us all. It was barren land dotted with lush green plots where water gathered. The hand full of farms and houses we found were vacant with no sign of blood. Some looked a mess as if the people had left in a hurry grabbing what they could on their way out. And we found very few infected.

-——————————————

Our three day rest turned into five, then seven. I was determined to herd the horses in the area into the corals and after four days of herding on quads, putting out food and leaving gates open and
trying everything else I could think of
it happened, they just walked in.

We were all at the barns one afternoon looking around planning what to try next when Christine looked up and said “There they are, they came home.”

“What?” I asked walking to her.

“The horses came home.” she said pointing.

She was right, there were eight horses in the coral munching oats we’d put out days before. I snuck around quietly and closed the gate then went back to the barn.

We all watched as they switched their tails and tossed their heads as if nothing unusual had ever happened. “Tomorrow I’ll see about saddling one and taking it for a ride.” I finally broke the silence.

“Do you know how?” Christine asked.

“I’ll remember, may take a while but I’ll figure it out.”

We left the horses and walked back to the house. The boys went to the creek and the tire swing they’d put up, Christine and I sat in the yard and watched.

“I found the book for the solar panels this morning, tomorrow I’ll see if I can get them going.” I said.

The shop building had four panels on the roof but there was no electricity being generated, at least we hadn’t been able to figure out how to get the electricity if they were.

“Electricity would be nice. Would it be in the house?” she asked.

“I don’t know but it looks like it’s just the shop. We may be able to make it so the house is serviced.” I said, “Or we could just move into the shop.”

She frowned and said “I love you,” then went inside.

I sat thinking about where we were, about Farmer City and what
could
happen next. Worry is never a good thing and when I felt it creeping in I got up and went to the shop. Idleness tends to lull the mind and open it to all sorts of dangerous thoughts. I needed to get my mind working on something.

It took less than ten minutes with the solar panel manual to figure out our problem, the inverter was unhooked. Once I got that fixed, a simple attaching of a wire, tightening it down, then flipping the light switch and
presto
we had light. We also had power tools and a full workshop.

The excitement of having electricity, even if only in the shop, had us all dancing. It was a step toward our old,
civilized
existence. “We’ll do some playing tomorrow, right now let’s get inside, get cleaned up and ready for bed.” I instructed.

It was a great day, the horses came back we had electricity and a house, two houses actually. If our good fortune held we’d soon find a town full of healthy friendly people ready to welcome us. Tomorrow, we would see if that was the case.

-——————————————

I hadn’t been outside before sunrise since the ‘red eye’ incident in Farmer City. I stood at the back door watching, looking for any movement, hand on the door knob. A twist and pull had me face to face with the early morning air. I took a deep breath……clean, fresh air filled my lungs. There was no sweet foul stench, no putrid flesh smell in the air. I stepped out and closed the door then walked to the shop. I could hear the goats in the field beyond the trees and the hens in the yard.

Entering the shop I flipped on the lights and breathed out, maybe for the first time since leaving the house. This was one more step toward
normal
and it felt good. I lost track of myself and time looking around the shop. I found a slew of reloading equipment, power tools galore as well as a nice array of pneumatic tools. Whoever owned this place seemed to work on everything.

A rooster crowing startled me, I looked outside and it was getting light. I’d been nosing around for over an hour. That’s when it hit me, I’d been so distracted by going outside in the dark that I forgot to get coffee. I walked back in the house and met Christine sipping coffee and reading by candle light.

“Having fun in the light?” she said looking up from her book.

“Yeah, so much fun that I forgot coffee this morning.” I answered.

“Do you think you can get the solar working in here?”

“Haven’t gotten that far. There is a huge generator out there it may be a backup for the property. I’ll look at that this afternoon.”

We walked outside and sat on the deck and talked for a while. It was quiet and peaceful. We heard the boys moving around and started breakfast. The property had a well stocked root cellar so we fried some potatoes and scrambled eggs. We fixed a big breakfast and after eating we all headed to the barns to, “
watch daddy fall off a horse
.” At least that’s how Jesse put it.

The horses were skittish at first but it was obvious that they were used to people. Within twenty minutes of talking to them and standing in the corral two were calm enough to allow me to stroke their neck. “They don’t look too worried.” I said, “Let’s look for saddles and stuff.”

There was a tack shed at the end of one of the barns so we gathered gear and went back to the horses.

“I think I’ll start with that one,” I said pointing to a tall bay, “he was most at ease.”

“Be careful honey.” said Christine as I walked to the horse with a lariat in hand.

“He buddy.” I said softly as I approached, “Wanna go for a ride?” I slipped the rope over his head and guided him to the side of the pen. He gave no objection when the blanked went over his back nor when I placed the bit in his mouth. The only trouble came when I went to put the saddle on him, I didn’t get it high enough and banged it against his side. The horse didn’t appreciate that too much and gave out a snort and stamped as if to say “
What are you and idiot?
”

My second attempt had the saddle in place and the horse more at peace. A few adjustments later and I swung my leg over his back and was riding him around the corral.

“Yay daddy!” Christine cheered.

“Yay daddy!” Jesse echoed.

“Can I ride one?!” called out Caleb.

“Let’s see how this one acts and how the others warm up to us.” I said, “I think they are used to people just not us so give them time.”

I rode the horse around the corral for a few minutes then instructed them to open the gate. He was easy to ride and responded well even to me. We went around the barn area walking and trotting then headed for the open field. Once we were in the clear I gave him my heals and let out a “YAAAH!” and he took off in a gallop.

We went out a couple hundred yards and turned back toward the barns. I pulled back the rains and gave a “Whoa.” and he glided to a walk.

“He knows what he’s doing.” I said coming up to my family.

“That scared me.” said Christine.

“Can I ride him now daddy!” cried Caleb.

“Yeah, can I?” followed Jesse.

“I think that’s fine but in the corral.” I answered.

“Really?” disagreed Christine.

“Yeah, he’s a good horse. Do you want to ride first?” I asked.

“OK. I want to make sure it’s safe before my babies get on.” she answered.

“We’re not babies mom.” chastised Jesse.

“You’re my babies.” she returned, “Now what do I do?”

I gave her instructions, put a lead on the horse and helped her into the saddle. We walked around the corral three times and she was done. Each boy took his turn both wanting me to let go. The other horses mostly ignored us, a sign that they were getting more comfortable with our presence. We finished up, way too soon according to the boys, put the tack away and were feeling very proud.

“Tomorrow we can see who else will let us ride.” I said as we walked back to the house, “They all seem more at ease. Now I’d like to grab some food and drive up the road to check out the area, maybe take a look at the town and see what we have in store for us.”

-——————————————

The boys were watching out the windows as we drove toward Lander. Their job was to watch out for infected but I could tell they were distracted by the scenery. “Look at the old buildings.” one would say, “There’s a lake!”, “Water!”, “Deer!”, “A water Fall!”, “That’s a nice farm.”…… everyone was sightseeing and that was alright because we weren’t seeing any danger.

“Looks like there are houses up ahead, watch for infected or people.” I instructed.

There was nothing unusual to be seen. The houses we could see looked intact, no bullet holes, no blood or anything. I turned onto a residential street and stopped, honked the hummers horn and started to coast down the street.

“Watch windows and behind us.” I said as we crept along and honked. There was nothing moving.

It was the same most of the places we drove. There were two farms with infected but no living and far too few infected for the number of houses we were finding. They’d either been drawn off and scattered or we’d find a find a mob someplace.

I pulled the hummer to a stop and got out with binoculars. “That’s an airport.” I said pointing to our left.

“That’s a golf course right there.” Jesse said pointing in the same direction.

“Yep.” I agreed.

We were all scanning the area looking for any sign of life or trouble but there was none in view.

“That looks like a hospital over there.” said Christine, “Past the airport.”

“There are a lot more buildings up ahead, let’s buckle up and really be careful.” I said, “We’ll cruise around slowly and quietly.”

“Lander Mills.” read Caleb.

“Lander Airport Fly In, September 6
th
……” read Christine, “That’s around now isn’t it?”

“I think so.” I said.

“That makes me want to cry?” she said.

“Why mommy?” asked Jesse, “Did you want to go?”

“No, but there would be people here watching the planes and now they’re not.”

“There’s a health food store mommy.” Caleb pointed as we drove up the street.

“That’s nice.” she said, “We should stop and see what they have.”

“There’s some, at the gas station on the left.” Caleb said pointing.

There were three infected now stumbling toward us. They were very dark and moved with jerking motions looking as if they would fall to the ground with every step.

“Caleb and I’ll get out.” I said, “We’ll walk while you guys drive.”

Three shots stopped the infected. I went to the gas station and looked inside then entered. I brought out a city map and other pamphlets and handed them to Caleb. “Give this to your mom.”

We met back in the middle of the intersection and started walking up Main Street checking every storefront.

“There’s plumbing and heating, and a Radio Shack.” Caleb pointed out.

“They may come in handy.” I replied.

“Look, books.” I pointed out.

“Mommy, look books.” Caleb called back at the hummer.

We had walked five blocks, through most of down town, and had only seen those infected at the gas station and no sign of living.

“Looks deserted.” I finally said.

“Hope it’s not like Farmer City and we find those things in a grocery store.” Caleb commented.

I stopped dead in my tracks. I could feel the blood leave my face, I’m sure I went white. Before I could regain myself I heard Caleb, “Dad!, dad!, you alright?”

“Yeah, why?”

“You stopped and looked like a statue.”

“I’m OK.”

“What’s femmae?”

“What’s what?”

“F-e-m-a. It’s on yellow signs those windows.”

“Fee-ma…it’s a government agency, Federal Emergency….something Agency. They help out during earthquakes and hurricanes and things like that.”

We walked to the window of Lander Marine and read the poster.

“Federal Emergency Management Agency….FEMA.” I read.

“What does martial law mean?” he asked.

“The police or military restricts what you can do and where you can go. They moved the people….they moved them to the camps it looks like.”

“Camps?”

“There are some who believe the government has gotten too big and out of control. They think FEMA and other agencies are in place to round people up who don’t do what the government wants and put them in camps, prison camps. I don’t know about that but it looks like they took people who lived way out here in a small community and put them with a bunch of other people.”