by L. D. King
“We can’t stay in or even near the Los Angeles Basin. As the number of zombies increases, the people in the basin are moving towards Nevada or Arizona. Our van has been refueled. It’s ready to go when we’re ready. Llano is becoming a place where we don’t want to be. Many of the news stations that I listened to earlier have gone off the air. The stations that are still on are closer to our part of the state. A station in Palmdale has been reporting that the zombies are starting to take over that city. They’ve been telling everyone to get away from any of the larger population centers. What they are finding is the larger the population in an area, the more zombies are drawn there. The Palmdale station went off the air yesterday. I can’t find another station on the radio. No one’s transmitting now.”
“We need to get out of here before we can’t leave. We can’t go much further south before we run into the Mexican border. We don’t want to cross into Mexico; the drug cartels have created a unified organization and crushed the Mexican military as well as what’s left of their government. They are now in control of Mexico. If we go east, there are fewer people, but we’ll be driving into cold weather with the late fall or early winter coming. I don’t know about you, but I don’t do well in snow up to my ass. If we go north, there are fewer people up there than here, other than in the Portland or the greater Seattle area around Puget Sound. The areas with larger military bases appear to be hit by the outbreak harder than other areas.”
“I used to work in Portland. If we can get to Oregon on I-5, we could stop anywhere from Eugene to Salem. If we can get there quickly enough, there ought to be a place that would be good for us to lay over during the winter, and then in the spring, we can decide what we want to do.”
“I have a theory about the zombies. Mind you, it’s only a theory; I don’t have anything to back it up, but I believe that it’s some kind of attack on our country. Whoever’s behind this might be trying to take over the other countries by using zombies to do their dirty work. The start of the outbreak was too well coordinated to be a natural disaster. If it were a real outbreak, you’d think it would have started in one place. Over time, it would have spread to the other countries. But this damn thing happened all at once, all over the world, within 24 hours. I don’t know why, but this is how I feel about it. But what do I know, I’m just a reporter. I don’t know what started this zombie crap. It could be some kind of chemical warfare, or something else. Whatever it is, it’s destroying the world as we know it.”
“Wow, Kimberly. I have never looked at this like that,” said Jason. “If you’re right, it just turned from a scary natural disaster to a strategic attack that we probably won’t survive. In five minutes, you turned it into one of the most terrifying manmade disasters of all time.”
“Jason, I’ve been racking my brain as to how this outbreak could have started everywhere at the same time. It doesn’t make any sense to me otherwise. There’s got to be some kind of motive behind this. There has to be. It’s too controlled for it to be anything else.”
“I don’t know,” said Thomas. “Whoever is behind this had to have known that they’d be killing everyone in the world. If that was their plan, what’s going to be left for them when it’s all over?”
“I don’t know what will be left,” said Kimberly. “If this is manmade, then it must have gotten out of control. So far it’s just a thought, and I hope I’m wrong. Let’s get everything ready to leave in the morning. If nobody has any objections, I want to go to Oregon. We need to get everything ready to leave first thing in the morning. With the electrical grid going down, we might not be able to get any gas for the van. Find something in this gas station that we can use to siphon gas out of abandoned cars that we see. If there are any gas cans, take them too. And let’s strip all the broadcast equipment out of the van to make it lighter. It should use less gas that way.”
The rest of the day they stripped the van of anything they didn’t need. In the morning, they would drive through Palmdale to Bakersfield, then up toward Oregon on Interstate 5. With the gas that they had, they would able to drive as far as Red Bluff, California; if they couldn’t get any more gas, they would be walking from that point on.
After seven months of travel, the power grid on the west coast of America had failed completely. Kimberly and her crew had ended up walking from Red Bluff to Ashland, Oregon. On their journey, Tony had been killed by the zombies in California, and Jason was killed as they entered Oregon. It was only the three that remained now, Kimberly, Floyd and Eddie.
In Ashland, they were staying in a vacant store that they were able to make secure. They had been there for the last two days. They were out of food. They were searching for food and clothing to keep themselves warm.
“Kimberly, we ate the last of our food yesterday,” said Floyd. “If we don’t find more, we’re done. Summer is over, and fall is here. In Oregon, I guess fall means that the rain falls on us. I’m cold, wet and hungry, and all I want to do is sit inside next to a warm fire, eating a steak and drinking a beer, and frankly, Eddie is starting to look good enough to eat.” They all laughed together grimly. “Just kidding, Eddie, sorry. But we might want to think about making plans to stay in one place for the winter. Walking any further in this rain, or worse yet, snow, is gonna take a toll on us. Of course, we can’t forget about the zombies. They’ve been out in larger hunting groups. That last swarm we saw yesterday afternoon had to have been as many as 30 or 35 in one group. They’re coming out in the late afternoon through the night and they’re growing larger. I guess the good thing is that they don’t come out in the large swarms until late afternoon. When the sun comes up, it seems like they’re gone. During the day, we still see ‘em, but there’s only one or two, or maybe three at a time.”
“Floyd, I’m worried about it too,” said Kim. “You’re right, we need to find more food, and I agree that we need to find a place for the winter before we get caught with nowhere to go. We’ll have better luck once we get out of this part of Oregon. After we get up to the Willamette Valley around Eugene or even Salem, I know there’ll be more food for us up there. They grow a lot of crops up there. I think we just need to suck it up until we get there. I’ve driven this road many times, and it’s only about 180 miles to Eugene.”
She went on, “We need to start moving at sunup. We need to keep pushing on until we get there, following the I-5. Hopefully find a running car or truck for us to use.”
“Kimberly, there’s only three of us now,” said Floyd. “We might want to think about taking people up on their offer to join groups when we’re asked. I know not everyone has the same destination that we do. Does that make it right or wrong? The only thing we know for sure is that the number of zombies keeps growing every day. Who knows, maybe they won’t survive the winter. You don’t see snakes or bears in the winter, maybe the zombies are more like them than like us.”
“Kim, come over here and look at this,” said Eddie. “What the hell is it? It’s like a puddle of dark, gooey, oozy crap. It smells like an open sewer… or a zombie! Come on, take a closer look. Do you see, it’s got bones and scraps of clothing in it? What was this? Are the zombies killing people in a different way now, or is this maybe what happens when a zombie dies?”
“I don’t know what it is, Eddie, but right now I think we need to get from this as we can. I don’t know if it’s dangerous or what, but I want to get away from it, now.” She began to load up the things she had been carrying. “Come on, let’s get going.”
After they had been walking another hour or so, Kimberly said, “On another subject, I’m tired of losing friends. I can take nearly anything that’s thrown at me, but I can’t handle the idea of losing either of you. I agree that our ideas may not be the right ones. I agree that if we can join another group that it might be good for us, but before we join any group we need to make sure that they have similar thoughts to us. I don’t want to join a gang. Right now let’s find a place to hole up and get some rest.”
The two
men nodded agreement.
“At first light, we need to head out. I want to be in Grants Pass by the time we stop for the day. I have been holding a little food in case we ran out. We eat it for breakfast. After that, we’ll be out of food. If we’re lucky, we might find more food on the way to Grants Pass. Good night everyone. Tomorrow I hope it does not rain on us. At least very hard anyway. Maybe we can make raincoats out of some of the plastic that is lying around to help keep us dry.”
As darkness fell, they slept. Kimberly’s sleep was restless as she kept having dreams about the people she lost over these six months. They were up with the sun. They ate what food that Kimberly had been hiding for breakfast. They gathered up their supplies as they left the store.
As they were walking towards Grants Pass, Floyd said, “You know, it’d be nice to have a day that did not begin with rain. Next time we go out scrounging for food, I need a new pair of shoes, if we can find some. I’ve walked a hole in both of mine. An excellent steak with a cold beer would be nice. Anyway, we need to cut up this plastic so we can have a raincoat when it starts to rain again.”
“Okay, Floyd. We’d all like that steak and a cold beer about now. I’d help you butcher a cow, if you could find one. Remember, I worked the news in Portland on KGW. It was an NBC affiliate, and I was a street reporter trying to work my way up to the news desk, then to anchor. I know about Oregon rain. I stood in a lot of it during many a live news report. What’s coming down today doesn’t really even count as rain in Oregon.”
“Kimberly, if you were on the fast track to being an anchor, what happened?” asked Eddie.
“Well, let’s just say that if you sleep with the owner of the station, you get promoted faster. On the other hand, when you refuse to sleep with the owner, you get to find a new job. Therefore, I wound up in Riverside.”
She stopped suddenly. “Shhhh. Everyone stop. Keep quiet. Do you see what I am pointing at down there? I think it’s a raccoon. They’re not the best to eat, and they’re hard to catch. Eddie, do you think that you could hit it with that spear you made?”
“You know I’ll do my best. I need the two of you to go back about sixty feet, and go down the bank. Start walking slowly towards the raccoon. I’m going to go ahead about 25 feet so I can get in front of it. The two of you will persuade him to move towards me. It should work. I know I’m hungry enough to eat a raccoon. They are kind of fatty, but they taste like chicken.”
“Okay, Floyd, you are with me. We just need to be as quiet as we can until we get down there.”
Kimberly and Floyd walked back down the road a bit. They crossed over the guard rail and climbed down the bank. Eddie went further on up the road and down the bank to hide in wait for the raccoon. With everything that had been against them since they had left Llano, their luck turned, and Eddie speared the raccoon. They cleaned it right there, putting it into a bag. Back on the highway, they walked with a spring in their step. This had been one of the few good things that had happened to them since the zombie outbreak had started seven months ago.
It was already getting dark when they got to Grants Pass. Knowing that the zombies would be coming out to hunt soon, they quickly found a house that they could make secure. It was a two-story home with a front window that had been shattered.
They made sure that the house was empty before they settled in. Once inside, they used a chain that they had found in the front yard to secure the door. They were able to find enough material in the house to close up the shattered front window.
When Floyd checked the upstairs, he found a ladder leading to the roof. After the house was secured, Floyd went up the ladder to see what was up there. What he found on the flat roof was a small patio. The owner had built a deck with a fire pit to enjoy the cooler evenings in Grants Pass. The railing that was around the patio was solid. It was about four feet high so that whoever was up there could not be seen from below. As Floyd came down, he noticed a stash of firewood that was clearly for the fire pit. Floyd called downstairs, “Hey, guys, come see what I found up here. Eddie, bring the raccoon. We can cook it up here on the roof.”
As Kimberly poked her head up from the top of the ladder, she was surprised. Standing on the ladder, she said, “Floyd, you’re my hero. We can make a fire to cook on without anyone seeing it. You did good. I don’t care that a raccoon is not the tastiest thing to eat. To me, it’ll taste like the best steak ever.”
Eddie was standing on the bottom rung of the ladder. He shouted to Kimberly, “Can you make a decision? If you are going up on the roof, then go. If not, then get your ass out of my way.”
“Wow. I’ve been told my ass is nice to look at. What are you complaining about? Wait your turn. I’ll move when I’m ready.”
As Kimberly climbed up onto the patio, Floyd called down to Eddie, “When you come, up bring some of the wood from the stash down at the bottom of the ladder, and find some paper so I can get a fire started, so you can cook dinner. I’m hungry!”
“Okay, Floyd. I’ll bring it up, but I ain’t your slave. You could ask me nicely next time. We’re all hungry. We’re all a little grumpy, too. I’ll get this damn thing cooked as soon as you get the fire started.”
Eddie found some paper for the fire. Then, with the door at the top of the ladder open, he began tossing the wood up. The first piece of wood he threw hit Kimberly in the head. She cried out.
Eddie didn’t realize that he had hit her, and continued tossing more wood up. The last thing he threw was the bag with the raccoon. Then he climbed the ladder.
He was surprised to find that the patio was so small. Kimberly was standing next to the railing, rubbing her head.
“What’s the matter? He said.
“You clocked me right in the head with that first piece of wood,” she replied.
He looked at her and said, “Kimberly, I’m sorry I hit you with the wood. It doesn’t look like you are bleeding, but I think you’re gonna have a lump on your head. I really am sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it, Eddie. I should have gotten out of the way. It’s my own fault. I should have realized you’d throw the wood instead of carrying it. You can make it up to me by cooking this damn raccoon. I want a hot meal tonight.”
As Floyd was making the fire, Eddie was getting the raccoon ready to cook. Kimberly had gone back down to the first-floor to clean the table off so it would be ready for them to eat. She started to look for plates when Eddie called down to her.
“Kimberly, is there a skillet down there in the kitchen?”
“I’ve been looking, Eddie. So far I haven’t found a skillet. I haven’t found any plates, either. Let me look for something down here to cook on. Give me a minute.” She rummaged in the cupboards. “Eddie, I think I found something that you can use. It’s like the side of a small shopping cart. It’s not very big. Do you want it?”
“If that is all you can find, Kimberly. The meat will be dry because it won’t cook in grease, but a hot meal is still a hot meal. I’m gonna stay up here so I can cook all of it now so it won’t spoil later. There’s enough that we should be able to get two or maybe even three meals out of this if we are not piggy about it.”
“Eddie, if you can give me a hot meal with meat, I’ll carry you to the next town myself. Get it done so we can eat.”
Kimberly brought the grill up to Eddie. It wasn’t big enough to cook all of the meat at once, so he had to cook the meat in several stages. For the next 45 minutes, Eddie cleaned, skinned and cooked the raccoon. When he was finished cooking as much of the raccoon as would fit on the grill, he put the cooked meat in the sack. Then he cooked the rest of the animal. When he was done, he took a bucket in the corner that was full of rain water and put the fire out. Down the ladder he came with the cooked meat. With a flourish, he entered the kitchen, holding the bag in his outstretched arm.
“Dinner is served, my friends!” He said in a bad English accent. “Kimberly, where be the plates on which I may make a magnificent presentation? Have we any ut
ensils to eat with? Must we be barbarians, eating with our fingers?”
“Eddie, I’ve been looking all over this kitchen. I’ve looked through the whole house. There’s nothing to eat off of, or eat with. If you don’t want your share of the meat, I’ll eat it for you. I don’t mind using my hands. How about you, Floyd?”
“I’d use my feet if I had to. I’m so hungry, I say just throw it on the table. It smells great.”
“Okay, I tried to class it up a little, but if you hillbillies wanna eat with your hands, then so be it. Here you go.”
The three of them ate with the knives they carried, picking up the slices of meat with their fingers. Floyd said, “Eddie, I know that a raccoon is a tough animal to cook. Other than being hot, it was greasy. The flavor was not the best. But you have outdone yourself. To me, today, this is better than any prime rib that I’ve ever had. As far as I’m concerned, you are now our cook.”
“Floyd is right about the meat. It’s been so long that we felt safe enough to build a fire to cook anything. From now on, if it’s got a pulse, you’ll cook it. All we need to go with this is cold beers for everyone. When we go out rummaging for stuff, we might want to keep an eye out for beer.”
“Kimberly, do you think we can take one more day here to hunt for more meat?” said Floyd. “I know your plan was to get to Eugene as quick as we could. One day won’t make that much of a difference. What do you say? That raccoon’s got to have a family around here just waiting for us to put them on our plate.”
“It’s secure enough,” said Kimberly. “With only the one door, it is better that way. The broken window is boarded up pretty good. I guess one more day here won’t kill us. Let me make one statement about this. We can’t stay linger in places any more. We have a goal that we need to get to, come hell or high water. Waiting another day will keep pushing our goal further away from us. If we are not careful, winter will stop us where we are when it hits. This is the last extra day until we get to where we’ll set up our winter camp. Are you both with me on this? I am really firm on it. If we don’t make it to where we need to be when winter hits, we will be forced to stay wherever we are. Where we are right now, there is no food nearby. We could starve to death without a supply of food over the winter.”
