Surviving The Zombie Apocalypse (Book 1): Sanctuary (18 page)

We
didn’t bother with the nightsticks. They lacked the weight necessary to really
crack open a zombie skull. The flashlights, knives, and other little things
were useful however, and divvied up between everyone. Simon handed Michael a
large, steel Maglite. It was heavy, and quite bright when turned on, but other
than as a toy to keep him occupied, it didn’t really contribute to the boy’s
safety.

*
* *

“Have
you noticed,” asked Briana, “how our luck goes in extremes?”

“A bit.”

I could
see what Briana was getting at. She’d had horrible luck with her mother and
brother but then good luck in meeting me. Lois and Mary likewise had bad luck
with their parents but good luck with Lizzy saving them and excellent luck with
the trio joining us. We all had horrible luck with Juliette’s death but then
excellent luck finding this cache. It wasn’t that simple of course, but a
superficial pattern seemed to exist.

“I want
to see if there are any shops in Dalton,” said Lizzy, over the radio. “This
place is small, and with the new guns I say we finally try to loot like we’ve
been talking about.”

“I
agree,” added Cherie, “provided it’s not overrun by zombies.”

“What
about you Simon?” asked Briana. She was operating our radio.

“Hang
on,” he said. There was a long pause. “If there’s a drug store, we want to stop
and get some medicine, stomach stuff and pain pills mostly, and Julie would
like some feminine products.”

“Me as
well,” added Cherie.

“Yeah,”
said Lizzy, “that would be really, really nice. That time of the month will be
rolling around.”

I shook
my head, and Briana laughed.

“Don’t
you like this conversation?”

“Sweetie,
have you ever met a man who liked this sort of discussion?”

Later
that night Briana pointed out that this was the first time I called her
sweetie.

“Not a
one,” she agreed, “but we do need some things. Well, not need as in needing to
survive, but it will be unpleasant otherwise.”

“Understandable.
Okay, tell everyone we’ll give it a shot. If it looks iffy, we’ll keep going,
but tell em not to worry about that. We’re close enough to the forest that we
can come back later.”

Briana
dutifully relayed the information. The maps indicated that
Dalton
was really tiny, so this was probably
the ideal place for our first attempt at organized looting.

“You
lead the way Jacob,” suggested Lizzy. “We’ll follow along.”

“No
problem,” replied Briana, speaking for me.

I slowly
drove up the highway. There were zombies around, but not enough to worry me
unduly. I then took a side street that held some stores. Finding a clear spot,
I spun around so I was facing the highway – this was to make it easier to get
out of town quickly, if need be – and parked in the middle of the road.

“They’re
coming to get us,” intoned Lizzy.

“Not too
many,” I said. “I think this is doable.”

Lizzy
stepped up to what had once been a policeman and whacked him on the side of the
head with a tire iron. The blow knocked the zombie over, and a second, more
solid strike killed it.

“That’d
be easier,” commented Cherie, “if you weren’t so short.”

Her eyes
narrowed. “I’m tall enough.”

“As long
as you don’t run into a zombie basketball player,” said Mary.

“If you
do,” I added, “I’ll see about finding you a step ladder.”

“I hate
all of you,” declared Lizzy. There were traces of a smile on her face though,
faint ones. It could have been my imagination.

“Hey!”
exclaimed Julie. “Another police officer, a live one.”

We
looked to where she was pointing. There was a man in a uniform, standing inside
a small diner across from us, waving. We immediately headed that way with Lizzy
taking out another zombie, again with her tire iron. We were now fairly certain
that getting sprayed with zombie guts would not cause infection.

The
police officer fumbled with the lock and had the door open by the time we
reached him. Moving inside, he secured it again.

“More
zombies are coming,” said Briana. “We’ll have to fight them to get out.”

“Nah,”
remarked Lizzy, “We go out the back door and leave them here banging the glass.
That works better.”

“The
back opens to some additional parking,” muttered the man. He suddenly
collapsed.

“You
okay?” I asked, hurrying to help him into a seat.

He held
up a bandaged hand. “Got bit. I know what it means. I have another day at
most.” He looked over at Lizzy. “Saw you kill Parker. He was my partner, for
near ten years.”

“I
didn’t mean anything personal…”

The
officer interrupted. “Don’t worry. I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t want to be
walking about like that. A favor you did him.” He began to cough. Now that we
were really looking, it was clear the infection was raging through his body.

“We
found a police van just south of town. That yours?” I asked.

He
nodded. “Ran out of gas. Parker pulled off, and we hoofed it here. We had been
trying to move supplies from our station to the safe zone.”

“A safe
zone?” asked Julie. She was clinging tightly to Michael, as usual. “Where is
it?”

“Gone.
Was in
Bridgeport
, but we got news that the survivors
were being moved by buses to
Cheyenne
over in
Wyoming
. By then we’d already been delayed a
few days.”

“So is
Cheyenne safe?” pressed Julie.

“No,
they weren’t staying there. The plan was to move everyone to some ranches out
in the countryside. I don’t know where exactly. Our communications were iffy at
that point.”

“Wyoming
is a big place,” I said, “with lots and lots of ranches.”

“Good
luck finding it,” he concluded, still coughing.

“We’re
going to set up in the
Nebraska
National Forest ourselves.” I’m not sure why I felt the need to explain our
plans to this stranger.

“But
shouldn’t we look for the others?” asked Julie. Simon was nodding as well.

“We’ll
try to find them, definitely, but we can’t spend months driving down each and
every back road looking. We need to get stuff ready to make it through the
winter safely.”

“But…”

“He’s
right,” said Lizzy.

Julie’s
face went purple at being cut off, and by a filthy lesbian at that.

“I think
Jacob’s right too,” added Briana. “We get set up, and then we can look.
Besides, we have to pass by Bridgeport anyway. Maybe they left some signs or
notes or something.”

Zombies
were now banging on the windows and the glass door.

“Don’t
worry about them,” said the police officer. “They did that before. Whoever
built this place put in really thick glass. They haven’t been able to crack
it.”

Julie
hugged Michael tighter and moved well away from the front.

“We got
mobbed while on foot,” the man continued. “Parker went down quick. I made it
here and locked myself in. Good enough place to die, I guess.”

“Anything
we can do for you?” I really hoped he wouldn’t ask me to end it for him. I
wasn’t sure if I could do a mercy killing.

“No.” He
shook his head. “Well, something to eat would be nice. There’s food in the
back, lots of it. I haven’t had much energy…” He shut his eyes and leaned back
in his chair. “God, this sucks.”

“Briana,”
I prompted.

She
nodded and went to see what she could whip up. Mary tagged along. In the
meantime, we collected what little information the man could provide. The only
really good news was that many of the farms and ranches were still operating,
their numbers bolstered by survivors from nearby towns. These scattered
enclaves should be largely self-sufficient, but, being isolated, finding them
would be a challenge.

*
* *

Following
the meal, we said our farewells. The police officer thanked us and said he’d
stay by the front windows to try and distract the zombies while we escaped
through the rear of the building.

Before
going, we loaded up the canned and dry goods, everything we could manage, onto
a wheeled cart. Lois, with Mary helping to make sure nothing fell off, pushed
this to our vehicles. We left it there and moved toward the shops, splitting
into two groups. Lizzy, Lois, and Mary went for a small clothing store to get
what they needed. Simon, Julie, and Cherie headed for the drugstore to stock up
on medicine and get the specialty items our very gender lopsided group
required. Michael stayed put inside the Bransons’ SUV with the doors locked.
Briana and I got to play guard, keeping an eye on the vehicles and making
certain the way out was kept clear.

“I hope
they don’t take long,” said Briana. “I’m not feeling very comfortable with
this.”

Logically,
a small number of zombies, spread out and in clear sight, was easy to deal
with. Watching them shamble toward you, their mouths opening and closing in anticipation
of learning what you tasted like, something you couldn’t help but notice, was
quite disconcerting. I agreed with her sentiments completely.

“I think
I’m going to shoot them out there, instead of waiting for them to come closer.”

“The
shots will attract more,” said Briana.

“I think
they all know where we are already. We’ve been making lots of noise.”

“Want
help?”

Most
were coming from a single direction.

“No, I
think I’m good.” I put my .40 caliber back in the holster and retrieved one of
the extra 9mm pistols we had in the Jeep. “Keep an eye out in case any come up
from behind.”

Briana
nodded, visibly relaxing. Despite having shot zombies before, she really hated
taking them down.

“Pay
attention to Michael as well.” I waved at the kid as I walked past his window.
“Don’t want him getting into trouble.”

I
thought of Laura’s story concerning how Justin did things, along with our past
experiences, and I stopped when they were fifteen feet away, guaranteeing an
easy target. It turned out to be a simple process. Coming from one direction,
one or two at a time, there was no challenge and little risk.

“Some
over here,” called Briana.

I darted
back to the vehicles to get the three that had appeared on the opposite side of
the street.

“Lizzy
stuck her head out the door when she heard the shots,” added Briana, “but went
back in when I gave her a thumbs up. Julie ran out to save Michael or
something, not that he was in real danger.”

I
glanced at the SUV to see Julie sitting inside with Michael. “She should have
just stayed with him in the first place or taken him inside. I don’t think she
can deal with being apart.”

“More on
the other side again.”

Wiping
the sweat from my forehead, I grabbed an extra clip – we had made sure all were
kept filled – and moved to deal with this new batch.

“Here
come Simon and Cherie,” commented Briana. Her tone grew harsh. “Bitch is
talking to him again.”

“I
wouldn’t think they’d walk back in silence.”

“Yeah,
but I know what she’s probably saying.”

Whatever
it was, the conversation ended before they reached the cars. Cherie dropped
several bags into the metal storage boxes in her pickup and put more in the
passenger seat. Simon tossed what he was carrying there as well. There was more
room than in his SUV, and it could be sorted later.

“Get the
food inside too,” I called.

“Sure
thing,” replied Simon.

They put
the small stuff in the cab and the big gallon size cans of beans, tomato sauce,
and other staples from the diner in the back with the spare tires. It was a
good haul.

“Here
comes Mary and the others,” announced Briana. “Think they were a bit too eager
to shop?”

I shook
my head. The three were completely laden down with bags, more than they could
reasonably carry.

“What
did you get? Everything?”

“We
didn’t have time to try anything on,” protested Lizzy, as she shoved it all in
the back of the Grand Cherokee, “so we grabbed whatever looked like it might
fit, and we got stuff for Cherie and Briana too. Some things for Michael,
Simon, and you as well.”

“What
about Julie?” I asked, noticing how she was the only one left off the list.

Lizzy
grunted. “Lois grabbed stuff that might fit her. Waste of time helping that
spiteful troll.”