They ran forward to a warehouse on the right. Adam peered around the corner and saw dozens of soldiers shooting at hundreds of zombies surrounding them. It was clear the soldiers were significantly outnumbered.
"Let's watch this," Randy said. "I want to see what happens."
"You're going to see what organized resistance with firearms accomplishes," Penny said grimly.
They watched for forty-five minutes as the soldiers were gradually picked off by zombies. At around noon the last soldier screamed loudly and then quit firing his gun. The field grew eerily quiet except for the sound of flesh being ripped from corpses.
Adam shuddered.
"We should keep going," Randy said.
"We just found a breach in the perimeter," he countered. "We should head back and wait for the others."
"Adam, they'll refill this place with soldiers by the time we get back here."
"Maybe, but we have to at least try! I mean, surely their numbers are getting depleted."
"Unless those choppers overnight were resupplying them. We have no idea how many soldiers there are now."
"Guys, I think Randy is right. We need to keep moving south," Penny said. "Even if we head back now, you guys said last night that you typically go late into the afternoon. So, no one will be at the house."
"Yeah, I guess you're right Penny," Adam conceded. "Still, we have to tell the others about this as soon as possible!"
"Well, let's get going," Randy said. "I'd like to not get surrounded by those zombies."
They continued south and a short time after they crossed West Hovey, they were forced to turn back. They had come upon a horde of zombies that stretched for hundreds of yards. There must have been thousands of zombies in the crowd. Additionally, Adam saw the telltale plumes of flames shooting up at the far edge of the horde; soldiers were fighting their way through the horde toward their position, presumably to provide backup to the group of soldiers they had seen get slaughtered.
They all walked back to the house and waited.
At 2:00pm Adam saw Jillian, Missy and Jamie walking toward the house. He ran out to meet them.
"You guys are back early!" Jamie said as he saw Adam running.
"You guys are too!" he replied. He embraced Jillian when he reached her. "I'm glad you're okay Jill," he said.
She kissed him. "I'm glad you're okay."
"Why are you guys back so soon?" Jamie asked.
"We ran into a huge horde of zombies," he said. "We couldn't continue any further south."
"Did you run into Juan and Casey?"
Adam shook his head.
"Hmm."
"Why are you guys back so soon?"
"We reached College Avenue and assumed you had been there already."
"Fair enough."
They walked back inside.
"We saw dozens of soldiers get slaughtered by zombies this morning," Randy said.
Jamie raised his eyebrows. "Interesting. Things are getting crazy."
Adam nodded.
"We saw at least six helicopters fly over us," Jillian said.
"Yeah, and they had different markings than the Wolf Pack's vehicles," Jamie said.
Adam nodded. "So what does that mean?"
"I don't know. I guess the Wolf Pack got more friends."
Juan and Casey finally returned at sunset.
Missy ran out to meet them and embraced Casey as though he had returned from war.
Juan looked exhausted when they entered the house.
"What happened today?" Jamie asked.
"We saw a three-way battle," Juan replied.
"What?" Adam asked.
"We saw the rebels fighting against Wolf Pack soldiers. We also saw a third group of soldiers fighting with the Wolf Pack and the rebels. It would seem the helicopters we heard last night belonged to the new group of soldiers. They are definitely not allied with the Wolf Pack."
"We saw zombies today," Randy said. "Lots and lots of zombies."
"We should leave first thing in the morning," Juan said.
"How? How are we going to get through the perimeter?" Adam asked.
"Hopefully all of the fighting has reduced the number of soldiers guarding the perimeter. We'll just have to find a vehicle and drive through a roadblock," he replied.
"That sounds desperate," Randy said.
Juan threw his hands up. "I don't know what else to do. If we stay here much longer, we are going to get caught in the crossfire or get eaten."
"They're likely to have the area we saw on the west side reinforced by now," Randy said. "So if we are going to make a break for it that rules the west out. What did you guys see on the southeast side and the southwest side?"
"The southwest side is where the heaviest fighting is," Juan said.
"So the majority of conflict is concentrated on the west side is what I'm hearing," Penny said.
"The southeast side was heavily guarded too. So was the northwest side," Jamie said.
"That leaves the northeast side," Jillian said.
"We'll set out tomorrow before dawn," Jamie said. "I guess we'll look for a large van tomorrow."
"Where is everyone going once we're out?" Missy asked.
"Well, we are going to Chicago," Randy said.
"I am too, so I guess I'll go with you all," Penny replied.
"I have nowhere left to go," Jamie said. "If it's still okay with you all, I'll go with you?"
Randy nodded.
"I too will go with you all," Juan said.
"That settles it," Randy said. "We're all going to Chicago."
Adam took first watch. Everyone except Jill went to sleep around 9:00pm. She sat on the stairs talking to him.
"Adam, today was scary. There were so many zombies," she said.
"I know Jill. It was terrible. We watched dozens of those soldiers get devoured by zombies."
She shuddered.
"Hey, I know I meant for this to be more romantic than this, but I really like you."
She giggled. "I really like you too."
"Well, I mean, I think with everything the way it is, now's as good a time as any to say this."
"Say what?"
"Jillian Michelle Wilson, I want to marry you."
"I want to marry you too, Adam Ryan Doss!"
"Will you marry me as soon as we get some place safe?"
She nodded. "Yes, I will!"
They kissed.
"I love you Jill."
She rested her head on his shoulder. "I love you too Adam."
They sat there for a while.
Around 11:00pm she spoke up. "I think I'm going to try to get some sleep."
"Alright, good night Jill."
"Good night Adam." She kissed him and then walked upstairs.
Adam sat there in the dark for a while, smiling. In the midst of everything that was going on, he still had his girl.
He was still smiling when he heard the sound of approaching diesel vehicles. He peered around the stairwell and saw two Humvees drive slowly past. A third Humvee turned down Linden Street. An APC drove by.
He realized something was amiss. He picked his pistol up and watched as a second APC stopped in the intersection of Poplar and Linden. It turned a spotlight on and shone it on the house across the street. Adam watched as five soldiers disembarked and walked to the house across the street. They fired their flamethrowers at the house and he watched in horror as it burst into flames.
He ran upstairs into the bedroom Juan and Jamie were in.
"Guys!" he whispered urgently. "The soldiers are torching the house across the street! Wake up!"
Juan stirred.
"Juan! The soldiers are torching the house across the street!"
He sat up quickly. "What?"
"The soldiers are torching the house across the street!"
He ran to the window and looked out. "They're also torching the one across the corner! Go get everyone else up!"
Adam ran to the room Randy, Casey, Missy,
Penny and Jill were sleeping in.
"Guys!" he said urgently. "They're torching the houses around us! Get up! We've got to go!"
Randy sat up. "What? We're being attacked?"
"Come on! We've got to go!"
Adam ran downstairs and saw soldiers walking up toward the house. Everyone filed down the stairs quickly into the kitchen.
"We will have to run through the backyard!" Juan said quietly.
"We'll have to split up!" Randy said. "Does everyone know where ISU is?"
"Yes!"
"Let's meet at the Quad at ISU!" Randy said.
"I'll be the last one out!" Adam said. "Go!"
The others disappeared out the back door. Juan, Penny, Jamie, Casey, Missy and Jill all ran out into the backyard. Someone knocked hard on the front door. Adam heard the wood splitting. He raised his gun and aimed. When the door burst open he began shooting. The first soldier dropped. Another soldier dropped. As soon as the third soldier fell down Adam turned and ran out the back door. The others were long gone he hoped. He hoped he had bought them enough time.
He sprinted through the backyard and leapt over a short chain-link fence into the next door neighbor's backyard. As he ran he heard houses all around him bursting into flames. He heard helicopters and gunfire nearby. He ran as fast as he could.
He stopped after he reached Fell Avenue and turned to look back. He saw flames leaping skyward behind him but couldn’t tell if he was being pursued. He turned and ran into the night.
Chapter Nineteen
Jillian Wilson
Day 8
"Go!" Adam yelled.
Jill felt Randy practically drag her out the back door and she turned to run with them. Just hours before she had told Adam she wanted to marry him and now she was running from him?
She followed Randy and Penny through yard after yard. They hurdled short fences and soon reached the Quad at ISU. Randy and Penny sat down in the grass under a tree, panting. Jill bent over with her hands on her knees, panting. She looked up and saw Casey and Missy approaching. They sat down under the tree next to Randy and Penny, too out of breath to talk.
Jamie ran up a few minutes later. He was panting. "Juan is dead," he said sadly.
"What?" Randy asked.
"He's dead. We were running through a backyard and he must have gotten hit with a sniper's bullet because he dropped. I ran back to him and his head looked like it had exploded."
Jill grimaced at the news. Juan had been a gracious host and now he was dead.
"What about Adam? Where's Adam?" Randy asked.
"How long do we wait here for him?" Penny asked.
Jill turned and glared at her. "We will wait for Adam as long as we have to!"
"We can't wait forever for your boy toy," Penny shot back.
Jill walked over to her and slapped her.
Penny leapt up and tackled Jill. "Why you...!" she screamed.
Randy grabbed her and pulled her off Jill. "Come on ladies! We'll wait here until Adam gets here."
She glared at Jill as he pulled her off. "Don't ever touch me again!"
"Don't ever suggest we abandon my boyfriend!" Jill shouted at her.
"Ladies, if you don't quit your yelling, you're going to attract a lot of unwanted attention," Jamie said. "Now just calm down, I know we're all wound up. Getting mad at each other isn't going to help anything. I want you both to stand up and shake hands and apologize to each other."
Jill looked at Jamie and realized he wasn't kidding. She stood up and walked to Penny. She sized the other woman up for a moment. Penny was a little shorter than she was and she smelled terrible. Still, Jill was glad she knew how to use a crossbow. Jill extended her hand.
"I'm sorry Penny. I'm just on edge. I'm worried about Adam."
Penny ignored her hand and came near and hugged her. "I'm sorry too Jill. I shouldn't have been so callous."
"Why is everyone hugging?" Adam’s voice came from the edge of the Quad.
"Adam!" Jill yelled. She turned and ran to him. "You're alive!"
He hugged her and kissed her. "I am alive. You are too!"
"We all are!" Penny said.
"Except for Juan," Jamie said.
Adam frowned. "What happened to Juan?"
"He got shot. He died," Jamie said quietly.
"I'm sorry to hear that man. I'm really sorry to hear that."
"It's okay, I mean it will be.”
At 5:00am , Randy and Jamie disappeared to find a vehicle while the others waited in the Quad. Penny, Casey and Missy all slept next to Jill and Adam. Penny was snoring softly.
"Adam, I thought I'd never see you again," Jill said as she leaned back on her elbows.
He chuckled softly. "I thought the same thing. I thought I was going to get barbequed."
"That's not funny."
"Sorry."
"It's okay." She leaned over and kissed his cheek. "I'm just glad you're okay."
She heard the sound of an approaching vehicle. She sat up and raised her pistol. Adam sat up too. Sure enough, a van was driving across the Quad toward them. It stopped twenty feet away and flashed its headlights.
"Guys! Look what we found!" Randy called out from the van.
Jill stood and walked over to the van. It was a white 15-passenger van with ISU lettering on the side.
"Nice!" she said.
"Yeah, I think it was the debate team's or something," Randy said. "Get the others up! Let's go!"
Jill walked over and woke Missy and Casey up. Adam woke Penny up. Soon they had all climbed into the van and were driving slowly through the streets of Normal, Illinois. They drove past abandoned storefronts and burned out ruins of houses. Zombies shuffled aimlessly down the street. They turned onto another road as they drove past an abandoned mall.
Adam was talking to Jamie and Randy about something. Jill started to nod off.
She startled suddenly and sat up. It was daylight out and the Illinois countryside was slowly rolling by.
"Where are we? How long have I been out?" she asked.
Adam laughed. "We're about ten miles north of the perimeter. We drove through it about an hour ago. It is now seven o'clock."
"How did we drive through the perimeter?"
"We drove up to a roadblock and saw that it was abandoned. This roadblock was like the others; it was just a pair of Humvees parked sideways across the road, blocking it. Adam and Jamie got into them and drove them out of the way and then got back in the van and we drove on," Randy said.
"Oh." Jill saw that Casey, Missy and Penny were still asleep. "You didn't wake any of us up?"
"Honestly, after all that last night, we felt it best to let you all sleep. We're going to drive for a little bit and then stop and find some place to recuperate."
Jill smiled. They had done it. They had escaped from Bloomington-Normal.
She yawned and closed her eyes. She felt Adam slide his arm around her. She leaned against him and fell asleep.
"Miss Wilson?" the little boy asked. "What's the difference between a flute and a clarinet?"
Jill smiled at him. "It's really simple Jimmy. The flute is silver, it is long and skinny and it can make a higher pitched noise than the clarinet can. The flute, however, has even more differences! You make sound with the flute by blowing into an opening at the top of it. The clarinet, on the other hand, you play by blowing into a mouthpiece that has a reed in it."
Several hands shot up.
"Yes Lexi?" Jill asked.
"Miss Wilson, what's a reed?"
"A reed is a thin piece of wood that lays across an opening on the bottom of the mouthpiece," She held up a clarinet mouthpiece to show them. "It works by vibrating really fast when you blow across it. Here, let me demonstrate." She assembled the clarinet, moistened the reed, and began to blow into it. She played a C-Major scale. Then she laid the clarinet down and picked up the flute and blew across the mouthpiece. She trilled her way up and down a G-Mixolydian scale.
The kids all smiled as
she laid the flute down on the desk.
"Now, we have just a few minutes left before the end of class. Does anyone have any questions?"
She snapped awake suddenly. The van was stopping.
"Where are we?" she asked sleepily.
"We're in Odell, Illinois Jill," Adam replied. "You sleep well?"
She nodded. "What time is it?"
"Just before noon."
"Oh. What's in Odell?"
"Randy hopes we can find some place to rest and recuperate."
She sighed. "I'm sad Juan died."
"Me too," Jamie said quietly. "I saved his skin more than once, but I guess I failed one time too many."
"Don't blame yourself Jamie, you didn't know that would happen," Casey said.
"Yeah," Adam added. "How would you have stopped a sniper's bullet?"
"Still, it just kills me that I couldn't save him."
The van exited the highway and pulled into the parking lot of a feed store.
"Well guys, I guess this looks alright as a place to spend the night," Randy said.
"It does," Adam said.
Everyone got out of the van and Jill immediately noticed it was a lot colder than it had been when they had left ISU. She folded her arms.
"Cold?" Adam asked as he put his arm around her.
She nodded. "It got a lot colder."
"Yeah, it did."
"Guys, I'm going to go to sleep when we get in there," Randy said.
"Me too," Jamie said.
They walked into the darkened feed store after Jamie picked the lock on the front door. It was cool inside, but not cold. It was quiet too.
Jill followed Adam back to the back storeroom. He smiled in the dim light when they got back there.
"This is perfect! There's actually room to stretch out!"
"Yeah, it is," she replied. "I guess you're going to go to sleep?"
He nodded. "Yeah, I'm exhausted."
"Okay, I think I'm going to stay up for a while."
"Okay, be careful."
"I will be. I love you Adam."
"I love you too Jill," he kissed her as he said it.
She walked out to the showroom and saw the others talking.
"I think I'm going to stay up and keep watch," Missy said.
"You sure babe?" Casey asked as he put his hands on her hips. "I don't want you getting overwhelmed."
Darkness and The Grave: A Zombie Novel Page 21
