Surviving The Aftermath (Book 1): The Dead Linger (29 page)

“How far behind us are they?”

“They said they would be a day behind, because they didn’t want to get spotted. I was supposed to break twigs and branches to help them track us, and then they would go back and get everyone once they discovered the location.

“That sounds about right. Hell that’s what I’d do. Except they aren’t that far behind, because I’ve spotted them twice, leading me to suspect you.” Tom ran his fingers through his shaggy hair, suddenly realizing how long it had gotten since being away. Would his wife recognize him he wondered. He had a shaggy beard growing out too. He felt old at this moment, thinking about all he’d done. Would Casey welcome him back? Would Jill still be there and could he live in her presence? Would his wife forgive him for abandoning her? He suddenly felt like he had no answers, like he didn’t know what to do. He headed back into the house and Brian slowly followed.

Flashes of rotting zombie faces flickered before Jill, she recognized them all. Thrusting up from her bed, Jill was sweating, and worried. The team hadn’t reported in since early this morning, it was now late evening. She kept imagining them all dead. There rotting corpses miles and miles away or they were trudging zombies now. Their fate would be forever unknown. NO! She had to stop thinking like that. She only meant to lie down and rest, but the pain meds Beth gave her must have really knocked her out. Going back outside she couldn’t escape her new worry. Maybe they were just busy, or fighting, she had to believe they were alive. She so badly wanted to take a car and drive out there to search, but she had to be patient. There fortress here was coming along. They had managed to retrieve more wall today, they weren’t sure on the configuration on what to use for it, but they had thoughts to try and encompass the parking lot on the front side of the store, and try and tear the concrete up to turn into farmable land. There were stores closer to the road they could utilize. They also planned to knock down some of the neighboring buildings to use as a natural break to prevent large hordes from being able to build up any speed or momentum. Meghan, Jack and Mike had been mapping out new weaponry, things with shrapnel to hopefully shred or de-limb the walking dead. 

“Hi Jill.” Beth called out.

“Hey Beth, what brings you out here so late?” Beth went to sleep close to after dinner, since she spent most the morning and day dealing with people’s ailments and trying to train others to help her. Beth had a full work load lately.

“I couldn’t sleep, saw you were up and might want some company.”

“Always.” They walked along the roof of the dollar store and back around the corner to the other side of the store.

“Meghan was talking to me tonight.” She paused.

“Yeah.”

“She mentioned her and Jack maybe getting one of the apartments for themselves.” Jill stopped, this was news to her as well.

“When did this come about?”

“No idea, tonight was the first night it was mentioned to me. Just wanted to hear your thoughts.” Beth said. Jill was quiet for a moment.

“Well I guess, it’s not the worst idea ever, but aren’t they a bit young?”

“Those were my exact thoughts too. I’m not just worried about Meghan, but Jack too. He’s only been 18 a short while and. . . , well does he have any experience with girls? Is he a virgin?” She asked.

“I have no idea. Maybe I should talk to him. Usually he comes to me with everything.”

“But if were talking about sex though, he may not want you to know.” Beth informed her. Jill’s radio started squawking making both women jump.

“This is Jill.”

“Jill we just heard back from the outside team, they are heading back early.”

“Thank god.” She sighed.

“They’ve got 2 dead and Casey is injured.”

“Is he infected?” There was a pause.

“Shit, they didn’t say and I didn’t think to ask. Hold on.” Carlton replied. There was more silence, the women didn’t even speak, just looked at each other.

“He’s fine, not infected. Over.” Jill began to sag and Beth grabbed her to keep her from falling on the ground. They hugged each other and Jill cried a bit with relief they were alive and coming home.

“Who do you think is dead?” Beth asked.

“We’ll probably find out in the morning I suppose.”

Chapter 10

As Casey raced down the road trying to figure out a way to back track and when to use his other grenade he couldn’t help but think what Jill was up too. Tom entered into his mind too. Where had he gone? Were they close to his location now? Was he dead? In another state, had he found more survivors? Swerving quickly to avoid a downed tree Casey righted the car. Shit that was close, have to stay focused. He slowed down to try and let the group catch up a bit so they still saw him. He hoped Oscar was getting stuff ready to go, they couldn’t linger at the fort more much longer. He went left down, down a few blocks, and then took another left, he slowly crept back up the backside of the block he’d come down, turned left again and slowly inched forward. He parked in the middle of the block and shut down the car and ducked, remaining quiet. He could hear them start to shuffle past at the other end of the block he was facing. He just needed one good toss. He opened up his door quietly, got out, took a deep breath, pulled the pin and chucked the grenade. Hoping his aim stayed true, he got into the truck, threw it in reverse watching as his grenade tore apart a good chunk of the pack, and he tried to weave his way back to the fort while still misdirecting any surviving zeds in case they followed.

Pulling back by the barracks, he saw they were continuing to load supplies.

“Hey guys we need to finish up and hit the road now. I lost the zombie horde for now, but who knows for how long.” Casey said helping put boxes in the back of a SUV.

“We still need to find a fuel truck. Robert, you can drive stick you said right?” Oscar asked.

“Absolutely.”

“Ok come with me, we’ll meet you guys back up here, be ready to go.” Oscar and Robert hopped in the cargo truck and headed back, deep into the fort. Everyone else finished loading up the stuff. It was a good haul. Plenty more food, ammo, they even found clothes and now had extra vehicles. Because of the loss of life they would have to leave some vehicles behind. Casey decided the Humvees were more valuable and Andy and Jane each hopped in one. They would leave a couple SUV’s parked in the garage for a return trip. He and Will would drive the other two. He looked over at Will, who sat brooding. He heard the man mumbling all about Oscar and Lucy and Vic. He would have to find out what happened there.

Will sat in his car steaming from the tongue lashing Oscar had given him. How was Lucy and Vic dying his fault? He replayed the scene over and over in his head, there was a slight possibility he could have gotten a shot off, but he froze, he wanted to live too, so he hid with Robert. Why didn’t Robert get yelled at? These thoughts rolled over and over in his head.

Everyone was set and ready, they were just waiting for the trucks to make an appearance, but the zombies did first.

“Shit.” Casey picked up the radio tuning it to the channel Oscar deemed good. “Oscar, Robert, you guys want to step up the pace, we have visitors.” A few more were ambling back towards them. The convoy hadn’t been spotted yet it seemed, the zombies were aimlessly wandering, but it wouldn’t be long.

“Ok here we come.” Casey looked up in his rearview watching two lumbering trucks approaching side by side.

“A couple of you go first, we’ll slip in the middle and the other two follow.”

“10-4.” Casey said. “Ok Andy you lead, I’ll follow you. Jane and Will, fall in behind the trucks.” A bunch of affirmatives and acknowledgements went over the radio.

Bypassing the zombies at the entrance was easy, it was the 5 or 6 blocks after that it got a little congested. The streets were just suddenly full, and will no extra person in each of the trucks to use the turret guns they each had to rely on their superior driving skills and some luck.

Andy’s Humvee was a good 50 yds. or so ahead of the pack. Casey was trying to catch up to make sure there was a path clear for the trucks, that’s when he noticed from between the houses another horde, was migrating there. There were some pretty fast ones in there, as they were on him within seconds of him spotting the moving mass. Wham! 4 or 5 slammed into the side of vehicle, going 50mph caused Casey to lose control of the vehicle. He went careening towards the opposite side of the street, bouncing off of a parked car and over correcting on his skid, he flipped the car over into a yard plowing him into the corner of a house. And that’s where he came to rest. The car on its side, Casey lay on the passenger side window, looking up at the sky through the opposite window, something warm running down his over his ear. The car was still intake, thank god, but hands appeared quickly and began pawing at the window above, his ears were ringing, his head swimming and it hurt to take a breath. He was trapped. He only had one pistol on him and a rifle in the back seat. How long could he hold them off for? He started hearing voices. The radio. Casey grasped for the handset.

“Casey come in.” Oscar repeated over and over.

“I think he’s dead, that was a bad one.” Someone chimed in. Casey couldn’t let them leave him. Jill kept swimming to the front of his mind. He promised her he’d be back, he couldn’t let her down. With as much breathe as he could muster he spoke. “I’m here.” His voice raspy with pain.

“Oh thank god.” Oscar began issuing orders for retrieval, they were trying to box in the area with the vehicles, and shoot the remaining zombies inside that area. Covering fire was happening for the outer perimeter, Oscar was trying to snipe the zombies crawling on the car. Casey began firing at the zombie from inside the car to try and help, but soon stopped as he couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn at this moment. The firing slowed and Oscar was on the radio again.

“Casey you’re clear, can you crawl out?” Casey looked at the splintered windshield and saw the wall of the house wedged up against it. He looked towards the back through the trunk, it was clear, but glass was lying all over the side of the car, that was now Casey’s floor. There’s no way he could crawl through it unscathed.

“I have to climb up through the window.” He said and dropped the radio.

“Hurry up!” Someone said over the air. Casey began his climb, footing was difficult to find and he couldn’t raise his right arm much over his head. Using his legs to brace himself between the seats and dashboard he wiggled his way up.

“Come on man.” Andy appeared in the opening almost causing Casey to lose his footing. As quick and gingerly as possible they got Casey out of the car. Casey was put in the backseat of Will’s car and they were all back on the move. 

After a rough night of waiting for the trailing scout to catch up to them, Tom finally rose outta bed. Or really he sat up from the floor with a dirty blanket as his bed. Taking a ration of water, which they were slowly running out of, he wandered around the top floor of an old department store. He and Brian had been diligently continuing to leave a trail for the bad guys to follow. Tom started sharpening another of his makeshift spears. They were planning to ambush the “scout party.” He hoped by staying put in a strategic spot they could get the jump on them and kill them. That was the plan anyway. It had been a couple days since they had picked this spot. He was beginning to wonder if somehow in the night scout passed by without Tom or Brian seeing them or if they were even still in pursuit. He knew they needed water, they’d have to move, but he was scared they might be out there waiting for them. Nudging Brian with his foot he woke the boy. “Brian. Let’s go.” After checking and re-checking the weapons, their remaining provisions and the immediate area, they moved. Tom thought it was best to get back on track and made a bee line to head south again.

Hours had gone by with nothing happening. The water was almost gone, food was out, and he had no idea how close to the fortress they were. A snapping of twigs had him crouching and spinning around like he was some sort of trained assassin. He even held up his arm with a closed fist to signal Brian to be quiet. *Snap*, another twig. He quickly hid behind a large tree and signaled Brian to do the same. Silence. Everyone seemed to be waiting for the other person to move. No problem, Tom could out wait anyone. 20mins must have elapsed, and Tom was slowly nodding off when some more twigs started snapping, a rustle of leaves and some whispers. Tom signaled for Brian to stay back as he readied his weapon, which was really just a pole from a closet used to hang your hangars on. But he’d sharpened both ends to a brutal point. He listened as the people got closer, he had to wait, needed them closer. He heard them whispering. “Where’d they got?”

“I thought I saw them go the other way.”

“No no, they were heading this way for sure.” The men continued argue whispering between each other. That’s when Tom saw a foot step forward and a hand with a gun following as he lunged forward with his pole, catching the guy in the opposite shoulder. His gun went off as he fell screaming in pain. The other quickly sprung and jumped on Tom’s back. Brian came from around the other tree grabbing his ankle managing to drag him off in time purely because the man was surprised Tom had a helper. Tom used this new freedom to drive his spear into the man injured and lying on the ground. Blood spurted from his mouth the instant the spear punctured the lungs. There was no coming back from that. The other man kicked Brian away and bear hugged Tom trapping his arms down against his body. He then shoved him up against another tree several times ramming his body and face into the tree over and over. Tom tried to be the action hero and run up the tree and over the bad guy, but it only worked to knock them both off balance, but at least Tom was free. Both men scrambling for the gun Tom reached it first and put it against the man’s temple.

“What do you want?” He said through gritted teeth. And like a cliché movie, the man spit in Tom’s face, causing Tom to smack him with the gun.

“I’m just going to kill you anyway so I guess it doesn’t matter.”

“They just wanted us to follow you.” The man said quickly. “They want the place.” Tom knew it.

“Brian, grab the packs and the weapons, and stand over there.” Tom walked the man over to his dead partner and removed his belt. He found a slender yet sturdy tree and proceeded to tie the man to the tree, and he blind folded him. “Tell your friends to leave us alone, or we will kill all of you.” They turned and walked away leaving the man hugging the tree.

“You can’t leave me here!” The man screeched, and writhed and yanked and pulled at his bindings. Tom and Brian continued walking away with the man still howling. Yet there was still one set of cautious eyes tracked them from a distance.

“I guess I just don’t know enough about farming.” Jill said defeated. Along with Kurt, some of the local farmers and their wives were trying to explain the areas that would be good to produce crops. They could till the land around here, the high school had plenty of open field, but apparently the ground there wouldn’t be ready for a couple of seasons, that’s what Jill didn’t get, didn’t you just plant a seed, water it a bunch and it grew? As the table continued going over the logistics of farming Jill looked around, even Jack seemed to understand this. Whatever, she’d do guard detail or something, because it sounded like this plan might be going off site.

“I’m telling you, my farm is set up, it can be self-sufficient for weeks, and the fencing is prime. We have well over 40 acres of plantable fields, we have another 40 for when that side needs a rest.” A man named Joe said.

“We can do this.” He little wife Maisey added. She was maybe 5’4” in heels. They also had to strapping sons that had made it to safety with them that could show others how to grow the crops.

“My worry is that it’s so far away. If a rescue was needed it could be 30mins before we reach you.” Kurt said.

“How many people could potentially stay on this farm?” Jill asked.

“I’d say 15 just in the house alone, we could always shape up the barn to accommodate more.” Joe informed them. Somehow they’d have to figure this out, the plan was sound, but putting it into play might be difficult.

“They’re back!” A shout came from one of the looks out. Everyone rushed to the entrance to greet the returning people. You could hear the rumble of diesel trucks, sounded like the mission went well. A Humvee rolled in with Andy behind the wheel, he was followed by a large tanker truck which must have been the fuel, another large truck with massive wheels, sporting loads of boxes, one of the homemade SUV’s parked and another Humvee. Jill was briefly confused, didn’t 4 cars leave? And why couldn’t she see Casey as people were exiting? She walked towards all the cars now that they were all in. Spotting Andy right away “Where’s Casey?” She said with worry.

“Don’t worry he’s ok. He’s in the back of the SUV.” He pointed and Jill sprinted over as Will, Oscar and Beth were all helping Casey out. His wounds were field dressed, so just quickly wrapped to stop the blood anywhere it might have flowed.

“What happened?” Jill immediately tried to help take some pressure off of Casey having to stand up.

“Bit of an accident.” Oscar filled in.

“I flipped the car.” Casey managed to say. “It was the zombies, they came out of nowhere and ran right into his side, I saw it happen.” Robert said. Going slow and with some limping they managed to get Casey into the room deemed the hospital, there 3 beds, but some nice medical supplies now.

“Lay him down there.” Beth indicated and she proceeded to grab supplies and cut Casey’s shirt off. Meghan stayed to help assist her mom, she was turning into a good nurse for not having any schooling, sometimes battle triage was the best teacher. They cut his pants off, Beth need to find if there was bleeding anywhere aside from his head wound. Casey continued to mumble and tried to move and help things but it having the opposite effect.