The Reanimates (Book 3): The Escape (19 page)

"We could trade a great deal of supplies for a few horses, especially since we weren't going to need them all anymore. Hell, we could trade our entire town if that was what it would take." DaWayne added emphatically. My eyes widened with excitement, he had an excellent point. When we were at trade meets there were always people asking for items that they needed that we had, but there was no way for us to part with them and survive the winter ourselves. If that didn't matter anymore, if there were no more long stretches of time that we needed to get through, then it wouldn't be a big deal to trade for traveling supplies.

"Cali, Trent," Derek began, "I see how serious you guys are about this idea. I also see the value in going, but your mom and I, well, we aren't up for a commute like that. We like it here. Sure, there are problems, and going to Ireland would fix the problems there are, but I see moving as a whole different set of problems. I look at the trade-off of being crammed together all over again in a series of apartments and going back to relying on a network of deliveries to get supplies. I look across this town right now and I know what resources we have and what we need to do to keep going. I like it. I like the simplicity. It's something I always wished for before the zombies, and now I have it. Why would I want to run across zombie infested madness and fight to board a boat to go back the world we had?"

"Derek, people are dying here. We have to fight tooth and nail for every last thing, and they die anyway." I said, tears filling my eyes. I had failed my job in taking care of these people, and I was stunned that Derek wouldn't be on board with this.

"Cali, baby, everyone dies. We can do our best to stave off death for as long as possible, but in the end, we all have to die." Derek walked over to me and put his hand on my shoulder, looked in my eyes and asked, "Do you really think this is the best idea that you can come up with for your family?" I nodded and he leaned in and said, "Then you do what you have to do. You take Drew and you run. You run fast and hard and don't stop until you get your son and yourselves on that boat, my decision be damned."

Tears filled my eyes, and I swallowed the lump that was forming in my throat. "Guys? Trent and I, we're going to New York. You are all invited to go with us, but no one has to. You don't have to, and I want you all to think on this heavy tonight. We'll talk about it tomorrow."

A Camp Divided

The next morning we all met again to decide who wanted to be a part of the traveling group. I knew that there were going to be a few people staying behind and that made me feel sad. I had visions of us all moving to Ireland together and being neighbors there too. Everyone here was my family and I loved them. Leaving with even one less person felt like a huge loss. My stomach was tied up in knots as we gathered in the cafeteria.

For a while, we sat in silence as everyone found their seats. I studied the faces of my friends, hoping to get a hint of what they decided. I didn't get very far in my guessing game when I realized that I barely heard Trent as he started the meeting. As he spoke, I tried to be attentive to what he was saying but I failed. There was a look of turmoil on the faces of those I held dear to me, and their stressed body postures and grimaces were so much louder than anything that Trent was saying, until he finally asked the question that was burning in all of us. It was a simple question, really; one with only five words. Who is coming with us?

Lucas and Lacey were the ones who spoke first, beginning the roll call of those who were going to go with us. There was heaviness in their eyes when they added that they would be accompanied by Raine, Liam, and Abigail. I quickly understood why the emotions on their faces were so mixed when they explained that Erin and Sawyer didn't want to make the trip. To further divide the family, Erin was going to keep J.J. with her. She argued that taking that sort of trip with a toddler didn't seem to make any sense. She was right about keeping her brother, and the entire family knew it, but it didn't make the division any easier. Liam sat sullenly with his family, holding onto his dog. He was heartbroken that his sister and his brother weren't coming and it was made worse by the fact that he couldn't take his dog with him. It seemed that he didn't know if he really wanted to come along either. After the meeting, Sawyer took him aside and swore to Liam that he would take care of his family, and his dog was included in that. Sawyer was still walking with the fresh wounds of losing his sister, and I think that those cracks in his heart made it even easier for him to sympathize with Liam's heartbreak.

Matt wasn't committed to staying or going, he was committed to his brother. When Lucas wanted to go, Matt was right behind him. Jackson and Justin didn't seem to care about where they called home; they were just as adrift as their father. However, like Liam, they had become attached to their dog, a loyal pup that followed the boys everywhere. There was a farm that one of Jack's people ran which hired Jackson and Justin to repair some tractor parts in their auto shop. The farmer seemed to really care for the dog. Every time he came to check on the tractor project, he brought treats for the dog and played with him. Justin and Jackson finally offered the dog to the man, and he accepted it, swearing that this would be the most spoiled dog ever. I knew that it would be.

DaWayne was going, but Trisha, the girls, Tanya, and Tyreese were not. Trisha volunteered to take over the medical station, and while I was sad that they weren't coming either, part of me was grateful to not be leaving them without someone to take care of their bumps and bruises. Trisha was ready in my opinion. She still had more to learn of course, but so did I. I burned the midnight oil more than once studying infectious diseases and she was willing to do the same.

Derek and Louise still didn't want to go, and Kristen and her family wanted to stay with them. It seemed to derail Trent that none of his family wanted to go. It made him take a moment to wonder if this was perhaps a bad idea after all if no one else in his family wanted to come, but he figured with the group that was staying behind, if things were going really well with Ireland life, maybe he could get in contact with them on the radio and convince them to come at that time.

Seeing the others make plans with their dogs reminded me that I too, had to bite the bullet and re-home Momma. We loved that dog. She was hope that the outside world could be survivable and home could be found if you were willing to go the distance. I hailed Terri on the walkie after the meeting and arranged to meet her at the safe house. I took Drew and Momma with me and met Terri there. As we walked down the road, I was watching how Momma walked. She was almost completely unrecognizable from the dog that walked up to our gate. That dog was thin and terrified, where the dog in front of me now was healthy and confident. We all went inside of the house and I sat down on the floor next to the dog. It took me a moment to make my mouth work, so until it did, I sat there and scratched Momma's ears. I finally managed to speak the words that were trapped in my throat and asked Terri to take our dog. She agreed, and she promised that the dog would have a very good, loving home with them. I trusted her. Drew whispered his goodbyes into Momma's ear as he held tightly to the dog's neck. It was funny, we started out our neighborly interactions with the exchange of an animal and it seemed that the end of our neighborly relationship was with one final animal passing hands.

Trent had asked their group if they wanted to come with us, and I was sad that they didn't want to come along. I really grew to love the people from their group, Jack and Terri especially. They considered it, and for their group, they decided that it had to be an all or nothing sort of thing, and not everyone was on board to go. Trent promised them that we would keep them updated on the trip and how Ireland was. Maybe if we proved that this trip was manageable, they would be more comfortable with the idea of coming along. I gave Terri a tight hug and told her I would see her in Ireland soon. I felt her nod her head against me, and when we finally let go, I saw that she had tears on her face like I did. I hated goodbyes, and this one was no exception.

After Drew and I met with Terri, we headed off to the library to meet the rest of the group to look at an atlas and figure out our route. We knew to stay away from the Midwest, because of the militia we heard about, but if we stayed in the northern areas, we should be safe from running into that group. We decided to go through North Dakota, Minnesota, the top part of Wisconsin, and through Michigan, before we would cut through Ontario, Canada. We would reenter the United States at the New York/Vermont border and travel right down to Manhattan where we would catch the boat. It seemed easy enough, not a great deal of twisting and turning, and the entire trip measured out to be around 2,500 miles.

We talked about the idea of a wagon train for as much of the trip as we could and ideally, the trip should only take around two months to complete. We knew things never were ideal with us, so we figured to allow six months. If we arrived there sooner, we could feel like a success. If it took three times as long as it should, at least we were prepared. With that kind of time line, and the fact that Fall had just started, we decided it would be better to leave after winter was over so we weren't stuck on the road turning into Popsicles. That would give us several months to put together supplies and build up a wagon and trade for horses.

I tried to imagine what sort of supplies we would need to pack. Six months was a long time to be on the road, and I was worried that if we actually took six months’ worth of stuff, that we would be leaving the rest of the group high and dry; not to mention our horses overloaded.

We needed to make more supply runs. If nothing else, we needed to go to some of the larger towns to acquire enough wood to build the wagons, and we needed to find some sort of trailer chassis to build our wagons on. We had scavenged everything in the local area, so we needed to reach out to farther areas. We studied the map and decided that Bozeman would be a good spot to start our hunt, and if we needed to, we could go from there.

We spent the day getting prepared for the trip. There was so much that we needed to be able to do this kind of journey. Matt, Lucas, and DaWayne joined Trent and me on our supply run, if for no other reason than to be able to bring more trucks to load up if we hit the jackpot with our finds. We took off with our heads spinning from all the shopping lists in our heads for the trip, as well as wish list items for those that were staying behind.

We started off at a home improvement store, and it was there where we had our first idea.

There were several large storage sheds on display in front of the store, and it was these structures that made us realize what we could make our wagons out of. These sheds were like miniature homes, and they were more weather resistant and more lightweight than wood structures would be. We needed those sheds, and probably a lot of other stuff that was inside. We approached the store carefully; our various weapons in hand, not knowing what we would find. We walked up to the sliding glass doors and discovered broken glass strewn all around the entry way. We were not the first people to come up with the idea of looting this store, and whoever was here last didn't have a chance to re-secure the entrance, or just didn't think about it. We went aisle by aisle, looking for evidence of the undead. After some very tense moments of slipping quietly through the store, only one zombie was discovered. It was pinned underneath a pallet of fertilizer, trapped there with the smell of cow poop blending with the smell of decay in a very unique mixture of grossness. We took the trapped zombie out if its misery and continued with our task.

We were in luck when it came to the sheds. There was a very large one that measured twenty feet long and twelve feet wide, designed to look like a miniature two-story farm house, and three smaller ones that were eight feet long and seven feet wide. We found a cart and wrestled our shed boxes onto it. We also found a selection of deck boxes that were five feet long and two feet wide, that we planned on using as driver's seats. We decided that using the deck boxes to hold our weapons would be a good idea since someone would always be there in case we ran across something that was less than ideal.

We wandered the store hoping to find some inspiration for the trip. Using the sheds for the covered wagon bit was all fine and good, but it wasn't like we could just have the horses drag the sheds. While we walked past the large plywood sheets, Trent had an idea.

"If we stripped a car all the way to the frame and built a platform on it for the sheds, that would work. There are already wheels so we wouldn't have to fight with that kind of set up. Do you guys remember that welder that Matt found? Either my dad or I could make something to replace the steering box so we could have a way to get the horses to be able to turn. Heck, I bet there would be a way to link the brake pedal to the wagon. Would be a whole lot safer than just using a wooden block like they did in the 1800's, right?"

"Man, I'm just glad you're coming up with something. I've been stuck on this idea on how we're supposed to be out there for months, and keep coming up blank. Jackson and Justin have been collecting a stockpile of old trucks from the area, stealing a part or two off of many trucks to make a couple of nice trucks. I'm sure they will have a few frames to choose from. I know they will be more than happy to offer their services to you, should you need it." Matt had a genuine smile at the mental picture of his kids helping out on this project. It was the first time in a while that he smiled that easily, but before I knew it, the smile was replaced with his usual neutral facial expression. I wondered if he would ever be able to smile for longer again. Maybe he could heal in Ireland. I bet the therapists there were making money hand over fist. I knew I was going to have to log a few hours on the infamous therapy couch myself after this.

While the guys were talking about how to link up to the steering on the cars, I was lost in my head. I kept thinking about how radical this whole situation was and how much our lives were changed. I wondered if we could ever go back to normal again.

My arms were getting full from the various things that I had been pulling off of the shelves, so I located a cart to dump my finds in. There were things that I knew the group could use, plant food and the like, and things that I thought about us needing. I remembered bouncing all around the back of the semi that we used to evacuate, and while I knew that we were going to be going much slower, and therefore be bouncing less, I couldn't help but look for things that would make the trip more comfortable. I yanked the carpet padding off of the shelf quickly, as though there might be another person right behind me that would try to take it.