Surviving The Zombie Apocalypse (Book 2): Conflict (32 page)

Chapter X

“I think
we need to speed up our timetable.”

“We
don’t have a timetable.”

Briana
shot me a look, apparently not liking my answer.

“Why the
fuck not?” demanded Lizzy. “Stop being so damn lazy.”

“It’s
not laziness,” I protested. “We just haven’t taken the time to write one down
or think about it, other than getting things done fast before winter hits. We
should have started sooner.”

“We
didn’t know we would have to.”

“I can
wish.” I leaned over the table to kiss Briana.

“Stop
that right now!” Lizzy was displeased. “If I don’t get any, you sure as fuck
won’t be showing off in front of me.”

“Quit
your bitching,” ordered Mary. “They’re in love. That means they get to do
squishy things.”

“Watch
the language girl.”

That was
funny coming from Lizzy.

Briana
and I, along with Lizzy, Mary, and Marcus, were meeting to discuss the next
step. In order to prevent anyone from overhearing and learning the location of
the new settlement, we were seated around a picnic table in the center of the
meadow. Tara and Dale were nearby – they’d taken to following me and Briana
around – but neither seemed inclined to participate, aside from keeping watch.
Asher was with Lisa and Steph.

“Maybe
you need to find someone of your own,” suggested Marcus. “Bound to be some
women here who lean that way, maybe even one or two you haven’t driven
completely mad yet.”

The
glowering suddenly softened. “Still too soon,” she muttered.

“We
should work faster, if we can,” continued Briana, moving the subject to
something less personal and painful. “We know the raiders know about us.”

That was
distressing, but there wasn’t anything we could do about it now. Actually, they
probably always knew of our existence. We used Harlan’s transmitter on a
regular basis, and while we try to mask locations, there had been references to
Nebraska and forest and trees and so forth, especially early on. These people
weren’t completely stupid, and even if by some miracle they didn’t figure it
out, the bastards could still calculate our location by tracking any
transmissions they picked up. Those only went so far, making it relatively easy
to triangulate.

“They
haven’t moved yet,” I said, “other than that one group and the scouts.”

“Got way
too many of those,” said Marcus. “Some have been killed, but who knows how many
saw things they shouldn’t and made it back. I bet a lot of the ranches are now
marked on their maps.”

As if
simply listening in wasn’t enough. Depressing.

“The
castle isn’t,” said Mary.

“We don’t
know that,” he countered.

Marcus
wiped a bandana across his dark skin. It was almost ebony, so you would think
he wouldn’t mind the heat so much. That might come across a bit racist, and I’m
sort of sorry if that’s the case. Still, his father was an immigrant from
central Africa where the weather is either hot and wet or hot and dry, but
always hot. Marcus should be more tolerant of the temperatures here. God, I can
only imagine his discomfort if we were back in Texas. I need to tell Mary to
make fun him more often.

“They
haven’t seen us,” she continued. “We have way too many people patrolling, and
there aren’t that many roads leading here. We watch all of those. We would
know.”

“You’re
probably right,” I agreed, “but you can never be absolutely certain. Either
way, they’ll likely go for the Wyoming ranches first. They’re closest, and I
don’t think the prophet is going to want to risk getting stuck between us and
them.”

“The way
he wiped Salt Lake City, which outnumbered him some fifty to one, he might
think he’s good enough.” Lizzy looked worried. “I wonder if he was military or
something, back before this all happened.”

“No one
knows,” replied Briana. “We don’t even know his real name.”

“Okay,
here’s the plan…”

“Woo Hoo!
A Jacob plan.”

Lizzy
took a swipe at the teenager, but Mary was faster and scooted out of reach.

“Marcus,
you and Lizzy are heading off again tomorrow. You’ll be taking more people, say
sixty or so, including some of the kids. You can have them pick up rocks and
stick them in the back of pickups to be used for the wall or something,
whatever will keep them busy. I’m sending some of the pregnant women too, no
one who can’t move on her own or might deliver soon, but there are those who
have the energy to keep an eye on the little ones.”

“You
sure about that?” he asked. “Things aren’t good up there, not by a long shot. I
got Randall working on the wall. He’s done similar stuff and knows how, and the
key parts of the foundation should be completed quickly. The above ground
portion will be slower. Laura wasn’t able to spare anyone to work on cabins.
We’ll have to put these new people in tents.”

“Most
are in tents now,” pointed out Briana. “We give you cots for those who need
them and a bunch of the big family sized tents you can stand up in. Those will
be just as good as a cabin this time of year.”

“Better
than our cabins,” muttered Lizzy.

Mary
nodded her agreement. The structures, while solid, weren’t at all comfortable.
They tended to be dark, due to being placed side by side and lacking windows,
and a recent thunderstorm proved the necessity of reconsidering our roof
design. That was already being worked on.

“If
we’re going to hurry Marcus, we have to get more people up there. I’m sending a
bunch of men who can work, but I can’t keep all the women and children sitting
here. That’s not any better.”

“He’s
right on that,” said Briana. “It’ll help with morale too, if we start moving
them out.”

“Sixty
is doable,” he admitted. “We need more food, but that’s easy to transport and
store. One of the caves has a wide tunnel that goes back and just ends. We’re
going to dump gravel and dirt to make a flat floor and then store cans or
whatever inside. It’s almost big enough to hold all we have now.”

“We’ll
use it, but I like to have things in more than one place,” I replied. “After
you get some cabins up, pick one for storage and spread things around. I can
just see a rock slide or cave in and us going hungry while we dig it all out.”

“That
cave isn’t going anywhere,” said Lizzy. “Not a chance of that. It isn’t really
a cave either, not a real one, just an indentation that goes in about fifty
feet. The other one was iffier. It’s more twisty and has some steep parts. We
didn’t explore it.”

“Wall
that off,” suggested Briana. “I don’t want any kids getting curious and ending
up lost or stuck.”

“Will
do,” said Marcus. “That’s already on the list.”

“Let’s
start stockpiling some weapons in the storage cave too.” I glanced over at Tara
and Dale. “Talk to them later. Have them give you half the hunting weapons and
half the associated ammo.”

“That
much?” asked Mary.

“Might
as well. Take all the revolvers too. No, don’t do that. Leave us the revolvers.
If things get bad, we can hand them out as personal weapons. They’re simple and
don’t jam, ideal for everyday people to use.”

“Yeah,
but you can’t really fight big fights with them,” said Lizzy. “We’ve had this
conversation before.”

“Not for
that.” She was absolutely correct on that point. “They are good when traveling
as a group, for killing the odd zombie here and there. Safer if everyone has
something.”

“What
about military guns?” asked Mary.

“Have
the twins give you some of those too, but keep at least two thirds here in case
we need to fight. We can use the Black Hills as an emergency fall back until we
move, so it’ll be best to have something there.”

“I’m
hoping that doesn’t happen.”

I
squeezed Briana’s hand. “Me either.”

“It
will,” declared Lizzy. “Our luck isn’t that fucking good.”

“Stop
that,” ordered Mary. “Oh, Jacob, make them take Tim too. Please. I’ll love you
forever and ever. I won’t even charge when I babysit Asher.”

“You
don’t charge now,” I commented.

“And
it’ll stay that way, I promise.”

“Take
the kid,” said Lizzy. She closed her eyes. “One hormone crazy teenager is
enough.”

“Are you
talking about Mary or Briana?”

Unlike
the fourteen year old, my reflexes aren’t all that good, and I failed to dodge
out of the way, getting slapped by my sweetie, right across the top of the
head. At least she didn’t throw anything at me.

“All of
them!” Lizzy grumbled something under her breath. “That boy is annoying, always
following Mary around, asking her to sit with him, or if he can sit with her,
saying they should go on walks. Lovesick little twerp.”

“Stop
leading him on,” suggested Marcus.

“Hey! I
am not leading him on,” she protested, indignation marring her pretty face.
“I’ve done everything to make him go away except hit him, and I’m thinking about
it.”

“You
could say ‘eat shit and die’,” I suggested. “Sometimes the blunt remarks work
best.”

“That’s
just mean.”

The
words came out of Briana and Mary’s mouth almost in unison. Creepy.

“Go
ahead and take him Marcus, if he’s willing. I don’t know if he is going to want
to risk total separation from his family. One more thing too, start making a
list of places to loot, a real one. Mark any houses, hotels, shops, so forth on
the maps and prioritize. I want to have everything within the Black Hills
emptied during the winter. We’ll be stuck there, probably, due to weather, but
we should be able to hit anything local.”

“With
the numbers we have,” said Briana, “we need to stock up if we want everyone to
get through the year without a rumbling tummy.”

Mary
waved a hand about. “You can tell Tim that I said you should take him because I
thought he was very capable and would be good helping out, since he helped run
a ranch and all. You can even tell him that I wanted him to look for places
where my cabin would be, since he has such good judgment.”

Marcus
smiled. “Sneaky little girl, but who knows, it might work.”

*
* *

“We need
more guns.”

Tara
lifted her head. It was the sort of comment that tended to catch her attention.

“How
so?” asked Steph

Briana,
myself, and our token redhead were in the common hall going over our inventory
of food and supplies, continuing the week’s seemingly endless meetings. Harlan
was also present, mostly in case anything came across the radio, as were the
twins. They were doing something with a large machine gun which they wanted to
install in the rafters. The pair had mentioned cutting a firing slot in the
roof so they could shoot over the front wall at anyone approaching the gate.
Briana had given the okay.

Bruce,
who was in charge of supplies in general, was completing a physical check of
our supply room and the myriad vehicles we used for overflow. The forest caches
were being left alone for now. The other person normally present, Mary, was
also missing. She was off playing with Asher, preferring that to paperwork. You
know, Mary really is a good babysitter.

“Aside
from never having too many, we don’t have enough that are suited to fighting an
organized, well-armed militia.”

“Again
Jacob, how so?” Steph set her notepad on the table. “You’re giving us general
statements. Specifics would be better.”

“We know
the raiders are set up like a militia. Well, we don’t know that, but they don’t
seem to be like an army. They are good at fighting as a group, so it seems
they’ve been training.”

“It
could just be that they’ve attacked and killed lots of people over the past
year,” suggested Briana. “Experience counts. That’s something we’re lacking.”

“We’ve
done fighting,” countered Steph, “on and off since the start.”

“But
almost no one has been fighting the raiders or other people. We’ve all done
zombies.” Briana paused. “That sounded bad.”

“We know
what you mean,” I said.

“And
we’re too tired to make a joke out of it,” added Steph.

With a
slight nod, Briana continued. “Jacob is the only one who fought the raiders,
back when they attacked the castle, and that was with a sniper rifle from far
away.”

“Hunting
rifle. My new sniper rifle is much better. Dale adjusted the scope for me
couple of days ago. It’s more accurate than I had it. Also, Lizzy killed one
with a shotgun.”

“True,”
conceded Briana, “but that was a single shot with him not seeing it coming.
It’s different fighting that way and being in a real battle where they shoot
back. We haven’t done that, not really, and we don’t have anyone who can teach
us how. All the police and military types we know about are with the Ranching
Collective. We don’t have anybody with actual training.”