Surviving The Zombie Apocalypse (Book 2): Conflict (10 page)

“All
dead,” declared Dale, again. “Coyotes are inside.”

Marcus
didn’t see any of the animals, but he took the young man’s word for it. The
birds might be inclined to feed with living people about, but that was less
likely with a coyote. Still, there might be someone in one of the buildings,
possibly hiding.

“Spread
out and take a look in all directions. Let me know if you see anything. If not,
we’ll move come dark. Sunset’s only an hour or so away.”

“I hate
moving around at night.” Sofie crawled along behind Marcus as he took up a position
allowing him to stare toward the east. “I just see myself walking into one of
those things and getting my face bit off.”

“Streets
are clear. We should be okay as far as zombies go. I don’t want to be
approaching in the open in case there are people around. We’d be easy targets.”

“Getting
shot is the least of my worries,” she grumbled, “but you’re right about being
careful.”

*
* *

“Someone
else was here,” said Jules. The lanky brunette was scratching the back of her
neck. “Had some of our people hanging, looks like a torture, slow kill thing, I
think. From the eyes, they turned but were shot afterwards.”

“How
long after?” asked Marcus.

“How
should I know? I’m just saying it was someone else later cause they weren’t
bitten. That means they were dead over a day before coming back. I don’t think
the people who attacked stayed that long. They just killed everyone and looted
whatever struck their fancy.”

“Bodies
are stiff and going bad,” announced Tara.

“So the
attack was a few days ago,” began Marcus. “Then, at least one day later, a
second group came by and saw what happened.”

“Better
folk too,” added Sofie. “They covered the babies upstairs.” She suddenly began
to retch, traces of blood coming up with the vomit.

“You
okay?” asked Jules, concern on her face.

The
other woman waved her off. “I’ll be fine. Just tired.”

A zombie
appeared around the corner, and Dale had his rifle up in a flash.

“No
shooting!” ordered Marcus. “I don’t want gun shots echoing around, not yet.”

The man
nodded, and pulled a machete from his belt. A quick downward stroke split the
skull open.

“Not one
of ours,” remarked Jules.

“A
roamer then.” Marcus looked at the others. “Ideas?”

The
twins spread out, keeping watch.

“Sofie?”

“We need
a safe place to hide.”

“Hide?”
demanded Jules. “I want to find the ones who did this.”

“Sofie’s
right,” said Marcus. “We don’t know enough, and it’s obvious there were a lot of
them. We’ll set up in town and go from there.”

“They
took our weapons and ammunition,” added Sofie. “We’ll need to resupply.”

“Easy
enough. Tara and Dale have been hoarding.”

The
twins turned to look at Marcus, the tiniest trace of respect in their eyes.

“How did
you know?” asked Tara.

“The
houses you two search tend to have fewer guns than the ones others check. Can’t
be coincidence.” Marcus shook his head. “Never really cared, since we had no
shortage, so I didn’t tell the committees. But, please tell me they’re stashed
nearby.”

“We have
plenty,” confirmed Dale.

*
* *

On a
side note, you may have noticed that Marcus’s group consisted of eight people,
but when Lizzy, Mary, and I met him, there were only seven. That’s because
Jules is no longer around. The woman, who from what Marcus shared was a bit of
a firebrand and surprising deadly at Scrabble, fell victim to an unfortunate
accident in late February.

Jules
was in the basement of the building they were living in, attempting to fix the
furnace. The door was stuck, and she was having a horrible time with it. Eventually
the thing creaked open a few inches, and she grasped the edge with both hands,
pulling. The rusted metal unexpectedly gave way, sending her tumbling to the
floor. Any relief at finally being able to do something about the cold was
overshadowed by deep gashes on both palms. Still, they weren’t bleeding too
badly, so Jules shrugged off the injury and wrapped a bit of cloth about each,
figuring she’d clean them later.

That was
a mistake. Hours passed, and when she finally bothered to tend the wounds, they
had turned a purplish black. Growing concerned, Jules attempted to wash them
out with soap, eliciting the aid of the others, all of whom agreed it was an
infection of some sort, and a fast moving one at that.

Jules
was woozy all evening, and her hands were throbbing fiercely. Marcus sent the
twins out looking for medicine, particularly antibiotics. Their pharmaceuticals
had been taken by the raiders. All that remained were basic pain killers. The
next morning, things looked even worse.

A second
excursion was made, heading for some nearby towns. Sofie, her own health
collapsing, remained with Jules. Marcus succeeded in finding a drug store, and
while it had been previously looted, there were items left behind.
Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t helping. They managed to drive through the
heavy snowfall, but it was slow going with visibility severely limited and the
road treacherous. It took them three days to get back. Jules died in the
meantime.

Chapter III

The
addition of seven newcomers from Martin resulted in several rapid and obvious
changes. Primary among these was the ability to actually get things done. To
start with, Tara and Dale Zablocki helped me expand the cache system we had
previously established. Instead of just keeping extra food and gear stashed
about the forest, we set up full scale resupply and evacuation stations.

Most of
these involved the placement of guns, ammunition, food, survival gear, and
extra clothing in large duffel bags which were deposited inside a car trunk.
All the vehicles used for this purpose were clearly wrecked, making it less
likely that anyone would bother searching them, and whenever possible we hid
the key to the trunk under the driver’s side floor mat to enable quick and
ready access. The intention was that anyone on the run or in dire straits would
have everything he needed in one place.

For
transportation, we took some of the extra pickups and SUVs that had been parked
in and around our meadow and stashed them in the woods, generally close to one
of the weapon drops. Again, the keys were left under the driver’s side floor
mat. These were also kept fueled and started weekly to ensure they were working
and that the batteries had plenty of charge.

Also
regarding vehicles, we finally began to sort through the multitude we had on
hand. The useless ones, sub compacts foremost in this group, were taken out of
the forest and abandoned on the side of the highway. The keepers were either
placed within our fenced parking area or lined up off to one side of the
castle. Things had been getting too cluttered, and it was past time to organize.
The other side of the castle held most of the U-Hauls and similar trucks, which
served as overflow storage. The corrals and animal pens remained out in front
as before.

Steph
suggested burying some food as well. It seemed like a lot of work, not to
mention hard to recover, but we had no shortage of canned goods. Kenneth even
contributed by helping dig the holes. He still walked unsteadily, having lost
most of his toes to frostbite, but the pain was gone. The underground caches
were all small, consisting of the pre-mentioned cans, along with a few knives
and can openers, all of which were inserted in a cloth sack. This was then
placed in several plastic trash bags sealed with duct tape. I’m not certain if
they will keep moisture and dirt out or not, but it was worth a try.

We
stacked rocks on top of the subterranean supply depots. It was obvious these
were placed there by a person, but no one would think there was something worth
stealing underneath. Instead, they would likely be thought graves or location
markers. There was a small risk the caches would be pilfered, but there was no
other way we’d find the things again.

The
twins went through our weapons in great detail. They tore these apart, put them
back together, and switched pieces between different guns. In all honesty, I
was completely lost as to what they were doing. Tara said it was important
though and set aside quite a few which Dale explained were only good for spare
parts. Our small armory inside the castle was restocked with .45 caliber
semi-automatics, .30-06 hunting rifles, and M-16’s, along with extra clips and
plenty of ammunition. Previously, we focused on rifles and 9mm pistols. It was
a solid upgrade. They also included a couple of rocket launchers and some flare
guns for good measure.

Everything
else, save what was taken for personal use, went back into storage, again
sorted by the type of ammo used. And we went ahead and hid a few guns in other
places about the castle, after lecturing Johnny that he was not to touch them
under any circumstance. Then Steph reconsidered and had these removed,
exercising her mommy veto. With everyone carrying at all times, it was somewhat
redundant and not worth the risk of an accident.

It was
as the calendar turned to April, and the roads were again fully passable, that
we began to seriously consider additional excursions. Driving this was the fact
that the raiders had all but destroyed at least two vibrant and secure
communities – there was no telling how many others had fallen to them. Plus, we
knew there were more of the nut jobs out there, probably active and moving around.
Add in normal crazy people, which had to be numerous, and we were back to our
original problem of being too small to properly defend ourselves and those we
cared about.

*
* *

“Two
choices,” stated Lizzy. She burped, neglected to excuse herself, and reached
for another muffin. “We look for others to hook up with us or we go join the
Mormons.”

“Mormons?”
asked Sofie.

“I think
she means Salt Lake City,” said Marcus. “Biggest place this side of the country
that’s standing, and only about half the population was Mormon.”

“As far
as we know, it’s still there,” corrected Briana, “and still the biggest, unless
you’ve heard something more recent than five months ago. You better not have
because I’ll be mad that you haven’t shared.”

He
shrugged. “I got nothing.”

“We know
there are people in Wyoming too,” added Steph.

“Those
are small,” said Lizzy, dismissively, “and all spread out. I don’t want to move
there. I say we either join someone strong or make ourselves strong by getting
them to come here. It really should be one or the other.”

“I am
rather partial to this place,” said Briana, before any debates as to the merits
of Lizzy’s opinion could begin. “I vote stay here and let others join us,
provided they meet our exacting standards.”

“Me
too!” shouted Mary. “We have a good thing, and there’s a big screen TV in my bedroom
that I don’t want to give up.”

“It is
pretty nice in the forest,” admitted Marcus. He looked over at the twins, but
they didn’t comment.

“If we
were to head to Salt Lake City,” I added, “that would mean traveling through
the mountains. I don’t want to try that without scouting it out in advance, and
that would take weeks at best. What we should do is find some of those ranches
in Wyoming, but not joining them. Lizzy’s right about that, at least until we
know more. Still, Kenneth said they had a network going. Becoming part of that
might be worthwhile.”

The
usually quiet man nodded. “They talk a lot on radio, big ones that broadcast
really far, and the police stations that coordinate it all are in contact with
other groups even further away. But, I don’t know where they are, not exactly.
I just did manual labor. I never looked at a map, or if I had been shown I
don’t remember.”

“Bummer,”
muttered Sofie.

For
those who might be wondering – if not, I’m going to tell you anyway – the
desire to have a real community with lots of human beings around was a
secondary factor only slightly less important than security. Much of what we
did was out of the need to speak and be with others. It was what made me put up
with so much nonsense the year before. I didn’t want to be alone. People are
social animals, always have been and likely will remain so.

“So
where you want to be looking then?” asked Marcus. “There’s nothing around
Martin. We searched that region already.”

“We can
check Wyoming easy enough,” I replied. “It’s close by and wide open.”

“Edwin,”
said Briana.

“Who’s
Edwin?”

That
came from Harvey. By the way, the other three who accompanied Marcus, Sofie,
and the twins were Harvey, Bruce, and Renee.

“We met
him and some others down in Anadarko, Oklahoma on our way up here last summer,”
I explained.

“Nice
people,” continued Briana. “They invited us to stay, but they were too close to
Oklahoma City for us to risk it.”

“Think
they’re still there?” asked Marcus.

She
hesitated long enough for him and the newcomers to properly gauge her doubts.

“I don’t
know if they survived. They were determined to not leave, so they probably made
a serious go at it. Still, even during the early days zombies were drifting in
regularly. It had to get way worse after we left.”

“Having
driven through there that long ago, could you find it again?”

“Please
Marcus.” Briana was rolling her eyes, quite blatantly. “It’s not like I can’t
read a map.”

“You’re
not going pregnant girl,” declared Lizzy. “You’re grounded till the baby pops
out, and I have some serious doubts about your ability to read a map. I’ve been
on plenty of looting runs when you were supposedly doing the navigating.”

“That is
so not true,” protested Briana. “And it was you who drove us into a creek bed,
saying it was a dirt road. Remember that one?”

“We can
get there easy enough,” I interjected. “We took back roads most of the way, so
it was kinda roundabout. There were a few tight spots by the interstates, but
we can definitely get there again, probably in just a few days since we can now
carry extra gas with us instead of stopping to siphon all the time. That was
one of the things slowing us before. Well, that and being careful because we
had no idea what was up ahead.”

“Won’t
have to stop to loot for food either,” added Lizzy. “We should go there first.
Hit Wyoming afterwards.”

“Wyoming
is closer,” pointed out Steph.

“But we
know where to go in Oklahoma.” The stout woman gestured for Mary to pass a
plate of garlic bread. “Wyoming is a crap shoot. We might end up running about
for who knows how long. This is a clear run.”

“I’m
agreeing with the glutton,” I said. “We know where to go to find Edwin’s group,
and it’s doable.”

“What
the fuck do you mean by calling me a glutton?” Lizzy likely would have risen to
her feet, but Steph clamped a hand on her shoulder.

“Stop
hogging all the baked goods, and I’ll be more respectful.”

“No one
else was eating any! That makes it fair game.” She pulled free of the redhead.
“I’m going to go shoot something.”

The
twins rose to join her. Her glare shifted to them.

“I’m not
serious, and it’s almost fucking bedtime! Sit your asses back down!”

Surprisingly,
they did just that, returning to their card game. I think they were playing
war.

*
* *

We
departed two days later, on April 4. It was a small group, and I was leading
with Mary riding beside me. Marcus was going as well, driving his rig, complete
with a trailer. I thought this more than a little unwieldy, but he claimed
they’d taken it on other trips, some several hundred miles in length. It also
provided for ample storage space, both regarding the supplies we would need and
for anything we might bring back. Still… We are going from my system of using
off road Jeeps to a damn semi. I wasn’t sure if this would work or not.

Lizzy
was going to be riding with Marcus. Normally, it’s near impossible to prevent
her from getting behind the wheel of whatever vehicle she was in. I think it
was only his promise to teach her to drive the truck that allowed her psyche to
accept being a mere passenger. On the upside, Lizzy is a good shot, and she
would be better positioned to join in any fights.

Sofie was
coming, and I had my doubts about her as well. The woman was quite sick – I’ll
go into more detail later – but she insisted on participating while she still
could. She would be driving a large SUV, acting as chauffeur for the twins.
That Tara and Dale would be accompanying us pleased Briana to no end. After
watching them practice, and seeing how good a shot each was, she felt the odds
of my returning were better with them along. I’m not sure what that says about
how she views my own abilities.

And my sweetie
would again be in charge of the castle and everything around it while we were
gone. Although the youngest there, aside from Johnny and Mary, she was capable
and had the full support of Steph. The other newcomers were disinclined to
assume any particular responsibility – Marcus was the only one to demonstrate
any tendency to take charge – and readily admitted that they knew little about
caring for the animals or making fresh bread and butter each morning, things
we’d been doing for months.

Much as
with our original journey north, and most of the other trips we’d taken, a
great deal happened along the way. We saw zombies – those were always around –
and we gained a greater understanding of the overall devastation. To start
with, there had been numerous fires. Fields were scorched, houses burned. I
have no way of ascertaining the cause, but with no one around to fight them,
they quickly spread out of control. We saw skeletons as well. Most were of
animals, generally cattle or horses that died for whatever reason, but there
were human ones too.

Everyone
who dies comes back. We all know this. If infected by a zombie bite, it’s seven
minutes after death. Lacking the bacteria, virus, or whatever, it will be in
roughly twenty six hours. No one was immune. Accordingly, every skull we
encountered was either punctured or shattered. Some might very well have been
killed by us previously, but most looked fresher than that. This spurred a
great deal of speculation as to whether or not there were others roaming the highways
and who they might be.