After stacking all their equipment at the front door and bringing out some more pans and trays to shovel with, Judy shut the door behind them just in time for them all to hear a crash and lots of crunching. The back window must have finally caved. But the infected still had to get past the furniture and was now secured inside the cabin.
Judy just hoped they didn’t remember how to use doorknobs.
They had only made it about five feet towards the car, trading the shovel around along the way, when the first infected reached them.
They had been hearing more moaning and crunching of snow throughout the whole time but had been able to just focus on shoveling when behind them the they heard a large commotion in the snow.
Turning, Judy saw that it was an infected, this time a man, who was stumbling out of the snowdrift towards them. One of his arms lay limply to his side, probably broken from forcing its way through packed snowdrifts. His hair and most of his upper torso was covered in thick, packed snow, shaking off along the way.
Without hesitation Jason pulled his gun and went to shoot the man.
“Wait!” Greg shouted. “Maybe we can put him in the cabin. Let him wait there until help comes,” he said.
“Help for who?” Jason exclaimed, glaring at Greg incredulously. Jason turned back shaking his head and pulled his gun back up just as the zombie reached him. He disposed of him with one shot to the forehead.
The shot echoed and spread over the snow, and a louder set of moans made them realize how close their pursuers must be.
“Linda, help me move the body!” Jason said.
Judy turned to her brother who looked saddened by the man’s death. Judy was too, knowing there were millions more that would follow his example throughout the world. She knew that since serving in a war zone Greg had vowed to never take a life unless there was no other choice. She hoped she could explain to him that there was no choice here.
“Ge-ge, I’m sorry. I don’t think we’re going to be able to help those already infected. Especially those that far-gone. Just think of it as a humane death for them, one where they no longer have to suffer,” she said, putting a hand on Greg’s arm.
Judy rarely called her brother that affectionate term any more. It translated to older brother, but when they were younger and she called him Ge-ge people made fun of Greg thinking it was a nickname for him in their family related to his American name. He had asked her not to use that term once he made it to middle school, and most of the time she abided. But it was a term of affection and respect in their culture, and right now it seemed appropriate. Greg nodded at her and seemed to agree before turning to continue shoveling.
Meanwhile Linda and Jason were just setting down the body by the side of the porch when a loud smack caused them both to jump and look up.
The woman from the cottage had made it past the furniture. She was now clambering against the inside of one of the front windows. Linda thought that glass was likely to hold a little longer there seeing as how there wasn’t also a layer of snow pushing against it.
“Get the gear,” she told Jason. They both ran over and picked up all their gear. It seemed to make sense to have it close.
“Jason, how about you and Linda keep digging towards the car, and Judy and I will start trying to make a path for the car to the road,” Greg suggested.
A nod from everyone was enough to know that everyone agreed to the plan.
They continued as fast as their bodies would let them. Judy’s arms ached more then they ever had before. With each scoop they were trembling and fighting her. She dropped a couple pans full of snow and gripped harder on the instrument to try to prevent it from happening again. Greg didn’t say anything, he just kept furiously digging beside her.
“Infected!” Linda shouted.
They all turned to see two more infected shaking themselves free from the snow to their path. They looked to be teenage boys, aside from their lifeless color and cyanotic, monstrous faces. Jason was closest and again went to dispatch of them, though this time left both of the bodies where they fell.
Turning back Judy was elated to see Jason and Linda had just about reached the car.
But the more concerning sight was what everyone was looking at now. Aside from the constant moaning, they could see the heads and movement of at least a dozen infected on either side of the cabin. Rather than taking the paths through the areas where the snow was the shallowest, say only two to three feet, the infected seemed to just bulldoze the most direct route towards them, even if that involved traveling through drifts of snow up to six feet tall. The infected would completely disappear in to them, though it thankfully would significantly slow them for a bit.
Some of the infected were getting mouthfuls of snow while they coasted through drifts up around the level of their chins.
The few that were traveling through areas with snow only two feet deep were doing so erratically, not knowing to pick their feet up high and instead trying to shuffle their way through. Lucky for the group it resulted in them falling rather frequently. Though this provided those behind with a less slippery surface to travel on.
“We’re about to be surrounded,” said Linda, stating the obvious.
“Just keep digging! Worst case scenario is we get stuck in the car,” Greg shouted.
At this point he ran over towards Linda and Jason to help them dig the car out, thinking it was a better use of their combined efforts. Judy joined him.
After another minute they had exposed the driver’s side back door and Linda opened it, motioning for Judy to grab the gear and get it inside.
Judy grabbed the gear and looked up only to see at least four of the infected were about to clear the snow all at once, giving them a quicker advancement to them through their path.
“Jason!” she shouted.
“I see it,” he replied, getting his gun back out and heading their way.
He took care of them all quickly and efficiently, only letting one infected accidentally get too close to him from behind. But Greg had been watching and against his inner angst he had taken care of the individual before it could land on top of Jason.
“Thanks,” Jason told him.
“I owe you,” Greg said as they both turned and rushed back to the car.
“We’ve almost got it clear, but then what?” asked Linda while they dug.
“We get in, duh,” said Jason.
“Yeah, and then how do you suppose we drive out of here?” she asked sarcastically.
“We’d better get in soon, there’s another group about to clear the snow,” Judy announced.
They turned briefly and shivered at the sight.
Just then a loud horn wailed from down the street. They all turned to see what it was. Even the infected seemed to be intrigued by the noise.
Relief washed over Judy. She saw the top headlights of a large truck with a giant plow on its front heading their way.
It had to back up and keep plowing snow to the sides of the road periodically, but within another minute it had reached their driveway and with all the force it could muster barreled up it past their car and into a row of infected, pushing them into a massive mound of snow at the front of the cottage.
Backing up the truck paused by the car, everyone’s mouths agape with shock and awe.
The window lowered itself and Greg and Jason smiled at a face they had seen before.
“Just heard about the crowd of walkers from Minneapolis heading your way and thought we better go check on you. Looks like we got here in the nick of time,” said a beautiful blonde woman wearing a flannel shirt, her hair pulled back in a ponytail and her face flush from the cold hitting it.
“Wow, you sure did,” smiled back Jason.
Judy peered around the woman’s head and could see another person, so bundled up that all she could guess was she a woman in her fifties based on the lines on her face and her facial structure.
“How about you kids follow us back to the town seeing as how we have this great plow to
lead the way and we can all have formal introductions there? Maybe do some catching up we never got to last night at the bar. We might need your advice with more of these zombies coming in to town by the minute,” the lady said, patting the truck on the door.
“That is the best idea we’ve heard all day,” Greg said.
Part 10: Oasis
“If we had no hope- for a cure, for winning the lottery, for falling in love, for the end of war, for being free of abuse, or for having food, warmth, clothing, and shelter- we would have no reason to go on. What you hope for doesn’t matter, but rather the essence of hope itself.”
-Bernie Siegel
Chapter 45
I woke up to someone shaking my shoulder. Opening my eyes I realized how puffy they were. And I had one hell of a headache. One that could rival any major hangover headache even though I couldn’t remember the last time I had any alcohol.
I rubbed my eyes hoping to make some of the puffiness go away and make it easier to see my surroundings. Naturally it didn’t work, and instead just made me realize how lachrymose I still was. I let the tears flow, hoping it would relieve some of the burning.
Daniel was turning the car off and Travis had been the one shaking me awake. River was standing on her back legs, looking out the window with her stump going a mile a minute.
“Welcome home: to our little oasis in the Midwest,” announced Travis.
Daniel groaned.
“What, do you disagree?” smirked Travis.
“This hardly constitutes an oasis, needs a lot of work too. But it’ll do for now,” he said, getting out of the car.
Travis followed him, River flying out the front door after him.
I climbed out of my side of the car, grabbing my pack and taking in my surroundings at the same time. It looked like we were in some sort of receiving bay. We had just driven through a large garage door behind us, and there was another one to its left. There were areas with ramps and more receiving doors a half level above us.
I followed Travis up the short staircase. There were lots of paintings in maroon and gold on the wall in the door. Paintings of cartoon like cats with the words “Home of the Wildcats” on some.
I found myself wishing I hadn’t cried myself to sleep and had paid more attention to where we were going when we had driven here.
It all made sense after we walked through the doorway and entered a spacious gymnasium. I suddenly remembered that Travis had said we were going to a high school.
Shortly after entering the room there was a large crowd heading our way, mostly of children between the ages of ten to eighteen I would guess. But there were a couple adults sprinkled through their midst. Mostly women I noted.
Travis whistled and got everyone’s attention.
“Alright folks, this is Diana,” he announced, pointing to me, “and this is River!” he shouted as he pointed to River. She jumped up on her back feet and there were simultaneous awes and bouts of laughter throughout the crowd. Leave it to my dog to set the mood and be the center of attention from the get go. I was definitely the gauche one of the two of us.
“She’s good with people?” Travis asked me quietly.
I guffawed. “Good with people? What do you think? Look at her!” I exclaimed, pointing to her as a group of the younger children came running up to her and she was jumping on all their laps to give them kisses for a greeting.
Travis’ smile widened. I couldn’t help myself and smiled too, though mine was with pride. I had a damn good dog, the best companion one could ask for, especially in this hell of a world.
“Ok everyone, looks like River is going to be super glad to meet all of you, as I am sure will be her pet Diana here,” Travis continued, getting a couple more chuckles and an epic eye roll from Daniel. “But I’m going to give them the tour so why don’t we all mob her and River at lunch. It’s only an hour away after all.”
There were some moans and sighs, but everyone seemed to start to disperse. Except for the children currently petting River who looked delighted to be the most important new member of this community.
“I’m going to go unload the supplies from the car if you’re ok with that,” Daniel said to Travis.
“Sounds good, I’ll show the lady the school,” he replied.
“Please don’t call me lady,” I said, trying to make him realize how annoying it was with a good eye roll of my own.
“My apologies miss.” He got another eye roll from me for that one. “But if it is alright with you I would like to escort you around and show you the oasis,” he said holding out his hand.
I took it hesitantly, but found it strangely comforting despite his sarcasm and over the top attitude. He guided me through the gymnasium towards one of the rear corners. River followed closely at our feet.
He dropped my hand in the middle of the gym and motioned around us. “This, as you can probably tell, is our headquarters,” he announced.
It was pretty obvious.
In one corner of the room they had spread out and stacked several wrestling mats, and on top of this were several dozen sleeping bags, blankets, and pillows. On the opposite side of the room the bleachers had been pulled out. Several areas were strung up with wires where laundry items were hanging. The other half of the bleachers were clearly the place to socialize. Lots of people were heading that way to chat, read books, listen to their I-pod. It would have looked like a normal high school except that the group currently hanging out in the stands were of a much wider age gap.
“Sleeping quarters over there,” Travis pointed to the wrestling mats. “And laundry over here,” pointing to the bleachers. “We also do the bulk of the laundry in the pool room.”
He then pointed to a smaller door behind the bleachers I hadn’t noticed originally where some light was streaming through. “That is the supply room.”
There was a woman sitting at a school desk in front of the door, a binder in front of her, a book in her hand.
“There’s a shit ton of stuff in there. Extra clothing, that’s why many of us in here are wearing gym shorts or high school pullovers,” he said. I turned around and saw that was the case, surprised I hadn’t noticed that over three quarters of the people in the room were wearing Wild Cat paraphernalia.
“And there are weapons, aka bats and archery supplies. Plus enough candy, baked goods, chips, and soda cans from various fundraiser activities to feed all of us for a couple months. Not very healthy naturally, so we try to eat mostly out of the cafeteria. That’s Grace at the door. She and a couple of the other women man the supplies and log items out. Plus everyone gets at least one piece of junk food and can of soda of their choice a day,” he explained, approaching the desk.
Grace looked up and smiled at them. “Hi there Diana, I’m Grace. Saw you come in. It’s nice to meet you,” she said, extending her hand. I shook it, smiling back.
“Can I have my daily Butterfinger?” asked Travis, batting his eyes at Grace.
“Certainly my dear,” she said, disappearing in to the storeroom for a couple seconds.
She handed over a Butterfinger to Travis and flipped through the binder to mark his daily junk food off.
Travis turned back to me and shook the bar gently at my face as if it were a pointer. “There’s only a couple dozen of these left in there, so I try to get one every day knowing they are going to run out well before the potato chips do,” he explained. “Want a bite?”
I shook my head, about to say that I preferred to eat vegan, but quickly stopping myself before I realized that I should be happy with vegetarian options. I was remembering that we were in a worldwide survival crisis, and while I still couldn’t stomach eating meat, I would gladly cave to eating vegetarian options if it was all we had. He shrugged and put the candy bar in his back pocket.
We headed back towards the doors on the opposite side of the gymnasium to the one they had entered.
Before they left, Travis turned back around and pointed to another set of doors on the sam
e wall with the doors from the receiving bay where we had entered. These doors were completely boarded up.
“That was the outside entrance to the gymnasium, but it’s not nearly as safe as the garage doors in the loading dock, so we boarded them up,” he explained.
Then he turned us back around to exit the gymnasium. It appeared there were locker rooms on the right side of the hallway we traveled through, and Travis confirmed that by pointing them out. It seemed that they were using the men’s and women’s labels appropriately too. I noticed a little girl rush out of the women’s locker room, blushing when she saw us, but then smiling at River. The entire left side of the hallway was lined with lockers.
“Both locker rooms lead to the pool, conveniently fortified with high walls, and no windows lower than 10 feet off the ground,” he said.
I wondered what they were using the pool for when Travis answered me. “We’ve tried to convert it in to a make shift laundry facility. It’s not the best, but we’re making do.”
When we reached the end of the hallway Travis opened the doors and held out a hand in a welcoming manner towards the path in front of us. I stepped through and could see windows on either side of this hall.
“This is probably why North Newbury High School is the best place to set up shop in the zombie apocalypse. Because of the grading of the ground, this over ground tunnel leads to the main part of the school, and conveniently arrives us on the third floor, which also happens to be where the cafeteria is located. It makes it easy for us to fortify and limit the chances of zombies breaking in on the ground level where they would naturally be. That means the only entrance we have to monitor is the one by the loading dock in the back of the gymnasium.”
I found myself looking to either side of the tunnel as we walked through. It was a standard indoor walkway with glass windows on either side, and it started about nine feet from the ground but had a steep grade as it traveled up to what Travis explained was the third floor. The ground below was empty, but I could see how this would come in handy for spotting zombies and staying well out of the potential attack zone from them.
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