Infected: They Will Eat You!: A Story of Family Survival in a Zombie Apocalypse (32 page)

“But we’re happy here.”

“Let’s just look around. We need to check out Riverton and the other communities, maybe we’ll find something we like better. That’s been the case our whole trip.”

Christine and I had been sitting on the deck enjoying a quiet morning together sipping coffee and watching Joey chase bugs and chickens and anything that moved. Except the goats, Joey ran from the goats. Then I had to spoil the moment and teller what I was thinking.

“We like it here.” were her last words before going inside.

I liked it here but it was dangerous. We had been working hard to make this home and it now felt like we belonged. None of us would like moving again but we’d all adapt, that was what this world forced on us and so far we were doing well.

Caleb came outside a while later “Mommy’s inside crying, she says we have to leave.”

“This is a great place but if we were attacked by a mob of infected or a gang we couldn’t defend it.” I started to explain.

“We need a fort.” he said.

“That would be nice.” I replied.

“Maybe there’s one by one of the lakes.” he was taking the idea of moving better than I expected.

“Maybe, we’ll spend time scouting around. I’m sure we’ll find a great place everyone will like that will be defendable. Today let’s finish setting up the dehydrators and freezer, tomorrow we’ll start working on the deer.”

The rest of the day we spent working around the property, taking care of the animals and talking about what kind of place we would like to live in. The boys were excited about the thought of a fort on a lake, Christine was quiet and worked alone most of the time.

It took us two days to get both deer processed and packed in the freezer, a LOT of jerky made and a large amount smoked. We were all learning the work involved in caring for livestock and the dangers of large animals. One evening a horse stepped on Caleb’s left foot and he limped for three days. The next morning a goat plowed over Jesse giving him a bruise on his hip the size of a softball.

Then the day came when we had time to start our scouting. At breakfast we ate looking at a map and discussing our rout and plans if we ran into trouble.

“We’ve explored a lot of Lander but there are houses all around we haven’t been to. We’ll check them later.” I started, “We’ll first check out the other towns in the area, Riverton’s the big one but there’s also Fort Washakie over here, Kinnear up here….” I was pointing to communities on the map.

“Let’s go by the big lake.” said Jesse.

“We’ll go by the lakes and see what’s around them.” I said.

We spent three days driving around the area looking at the communities and found infected in each, 162 by the boy’s calculation. Fort Washakie was a possibility to settle in, the school in Ethete had the resources we would need but nobody wanted to live in a school. Kinnear was closer to the lake but nobody saw a place they wanted to live in. It was getting frustrating for the boys, all they wanted to do was get the boat and go fishing. As much as Christine disliked the idea of moving she knew we needed to find a place soon. The weather was already changing and we thought we could be covered in snow soon.

“I liked the place in Pavilion.” said Caleb over breakfast.

“Daddy, why haven’t we gone to Riverton.” Jesse asked looking at a map.

“It’s the biggest town and I was saving it for last.” I answered, “It will take the longest to explore and is the most likely place to find trouble. But that’s where we’re going today.”

-——————————————

“What’s this place?” asked Christine as we drove through a small town on the way to Riverton.

“Hudson.” I said.

“We didn’t find any place here did we?” she asked.

“Nope.” Jesse answered.

“They’re starting to look the same.” she said.

We drove on watching the scenery, every once in a while someone would point out a farm or building in the distance.

“What’s that?” Christine asked pointing ahead. We were approaching a large building on the left. “It looks like a hotel.”

“And casino.” I said as we drove nearer and stopped.

“I’m not living in a casino.” she said.

“We’ll keep going then. Riverton is just ahead.”

“A river!” exclaimed Jesse as we approached a bridge.

“There’s a lot of campers and RV’s.” Caleb said as we drove past a camp ground along the river.

“Boats!” yelled Jesse.

“A lot of boats.” added Caleb, “There must be water here if there are that many boats.”

Caleb and Jesse had started calling out various items of interest. It was starting to get annoying, they stopped when we reached the tennis courts.

“It looks like a park.” said Christine, “It’s nice.”

We drove ‘till we reached farm land again then turned around looking for the center of town. “Turn at the park daddy.” Caleb instructed looking at a map.

“This looks more like it.” I said.

“Boots!” cheered Caleb, “Can we stop and look at the boots?”

“We’ll have time for that, right now we’re looking for a place to move.” I said I’d like to find a taller building but these are all single story.”

“At least it’s clean.” said Christine.

“Those are taller daddy.’ Jesse was pointing a couple blocks up the road.

“Yeah, two story. I was hoping for three of four but that’s better.”

“That one’s three.” he said pointing ahead to the left.

“That looks like the tallest one in town.” I said.

“It’s big.” Caleb added. “And has crosses on it.”

“Where?” asked Christine, “Oh I see them.”

“Let’s drive on up and come back to get a closer look.” I suggested, “Don’t forget to watch for people and infected.”

“There’s a four story.” said Caleb.

“Yeah, looks like apartments.” I said, “Look, a lumber yard close by. We won’t have to drive too far for supplies to renovate.”

“Is that what you were looking for daddy?” asked Caleb.

“I don’t know bud,” I answered, “I had something in mind that was different that we’ve found. I was thinking of building more like we had at home but they don’t build them like that here.”

“You mean taller?” he asked.

“Yeah, that’s part of it. But we have some choices now.”

“What’s that?” Christine asked “A collage, that’s nice, we would be close to a collage. I bet they have a library and art supplies….we will have school materials.”

“Not school!” shouted Jesse.

The next four hours were spent searching for infected, living and anyplace we felt was a good place to live. We found no living and 57 infected, according to the boys tally, and no place we liked to move into.

“Maybe there’s some recluse in the area who built a fortress in the mountains around here.” I finally said.

“Maybe.” Christine said, “We could just stay where we are.”

“Yeah.” I half agreed, “I like it but it’s not as secure as I’d like. At least these buildings are multiple story and we can see for a distance….and we have resources close.”

“We would also have more hiding places if someone wanted to attack us.” she said.

“No place will be perfect I just expected different. Let’s go home” I said.

“You don’t want to look at those buildings daddy?” Caleb asked.

“Not today, it’s getting to be late afternoon and the horses will need attention.” I answered, “Besides, I’m tired of driving around. We’ll go home and feed the horses then get the quads out and ride around.”

That got the boys excited. I was discouraged because what I wanted to find was not here, not exactly. I should have been happy that the area was nearly void of infected and that we had not had a run-in with any gang. I wanted a solution to our place to live but it wasn’t coming easily.

-——————————————

“We’ve done well” Christine said as we walked to the barns to check on the horses. The boys were on quads ahead of us. “We are alive and together and we have a home to live in. Caleb and Jesse are happy.”

“It’s good now but this thing that happened changed the world and we don’t know what to expect.” I said, “If the infected start moving around we need to be able to deal with them. If those things, the red eyed ones, are what we think they may be, they would be very dangerous. If they were roaming around here or found their way here we’d be in trouble where we are. We’d be in trouble if four people found us and wanted to take our stuff.”

“I know you’re worried about that.”

“And winter will be here soon. We could be under snow in a month. What’s the date today?”

“I don’t know but I keep track.”

“I do too but I forgot. I’m pretty sure winter comes earlier here than we’re used to and it will be colder.”

“You brought us north not south.” she said with a smile.

It was late September and the weather was changing. Nights were cooler and we were needing heat in the house. It didn’t make since to start a major move when we were facing winter. It would be better to deal with what we had and use the next few months to decide out next step.

“Why don’t we go fishing tomorrow.” I said once we had the horses settled.

“Yay!” cheered the boys.

“We’ll take the boat and try out Ocean Lake.” I continued, “We should also look for information about the area, what fish there are, the area lakes and hunting spots. Winter is coming and we’ll need more food than we have.”

“What about moving?” Caleb asked.

“We should probably stay here for the winter and think about moving next spring.” I answered, “We need to prepare for the cold and renovating a building doesn’t make since right now. We need wood and food.”

This was good news to everyone. We had settled in well and were happy. Staying gave us more time to choose our next move more wisely and not rush things. If we had found the ‘perfect place’ we’d be moving right away but that wasn’t the case. There was a reason for that I believed.

-——————————————

It was cold on the lake, a breeze off the mountains came unimpeded across the valley. The sun warmed us but enough to spend 6 hours on the water. By midafternoon both boys were hovering in the cabin ready to call it a day.

We ended up with two walleye, both over two feet, eight bass, a trout and a seven crappie. “Those fish were hungry.” said Jesse as we got ready to go.

Before we left we left we checked three boats that were trailered in the parking lot. All but one started right up.

“That was fun, can we do it again tomorrow?” asked Caleb.

“Let’s see about the weather.” I answered, “It feels like we have a change coming. I don’t know when snow starts here but I bet it’s sooner than we’re used to. When we do come back we can use these boats instead of hauling this one around.”

“It got cold.” Jesse said shivering as he got in the truck.

“The air got cooler, I bet there’s a storm coming over the mountains.” I said, “We need to watch the clouds and notice the wind patterns.”

Overall it was a successful trip. Christine caught the biggest fish, Caleb the most. The fresh fish was a welcome treat at dinner. Three quarters of our catch went to the freezer, the rest we devoured along with wild greens we’d foraged around the lake. Caleb had picked up a book on plants of the region during one of scouting trips and started collecting edible plants right away.

“They had hardly lain down and they were asleep.” Christine said coming onto the deck.

“The water really takes it out of you.” I said, “I’m exhausted.”

“Me too. Are you still thinking about staying?”

“I guess so. I think we are going to see snow soon and it would be hard enough to be preparing a new place in good weather, doing it in cold and snow would be too much.”

-——————————————

The next morning was cold. “
Yep
.” I thought as I walked onto the deck my coffee steaming in the morning chill. “
It’s coming
.”

I threw a few logs in the outside wood furnace then went inside and built a fire in the fire place. We’d kept a small fire in the furnace for a few days to keep the nights and mornings comfortable but this was the first time I cranked it up. The fireplace we used a few times more for ambiance than heat but the boys always ended up under blankets in front of the fire when we had one.

“Today is a wood day.” I said to Christine who was pouring a cup of coffee, “The cold is coming.”

“I feel it.” she said.

“I’ve seen a few houses with wood stacks and some pole wood.” I started, “I bet we’ll need ten cord or more for winter.”

“That’s a lot.”

“Yeah, it’s cold here. This valley might be sheltered against the worst of it but I don’t know enough to be sure.”

“Wishing we’d gone south?”

“No, this is right. Maybe not
exactly
the right but this is the right area.”

The day turned out to be beautiful with bright warm sun and no wind. It was so nice we decided to scout for wood on our way back to the lake to fish.

“I guess we can take advantage of nice days to fish and still be looking for wood.” I said as Christine pulled in her fifth walleye.

“Mommy you’re beating us all.” said Jesse.

“HeHe.” he giggled.

In four hours we had ten walleye and a mess of smaller bass and crappie. “Maybe we should do this every day as long as they’re biting like this.” I said.

“Can we?” cheered Caleb.

“As long as we make time to pick up loads of firewood on the way back I’m fine with it.” I said, “Especially if mommy keeps catching fish like she did today.”

And so it was, each day for ten days we fished catching over 140 pounds of fish. We were also able to gather a gigantic pile of split wood and a decent amount of pole wood. By the first Sunday in October we were setting up our fourth freezer so we could better organize our food; fish in one, deer in another, produce we’d gathered from gardens in another and the last sat empty waiting.

“I think it’s time to look for another deer or maybe elk.” I said at breakfast.

“Elk?!” shouted Caleb.

“Let’s get elk.” agreed Jesse.

“Elk won’t be as easy as deer I don’t’ think. We’ll have to go up in the mountains a bit.” I started to explain, “It could take a couple days.