“Huh, well that sucks. We were hoping the National Guard would be here soon.”
“Yea, not happening, pal,” Cootch chimed in.
Bill could tell Justin’s hopes had just been dashed by the way his shoulders sagged slightly.
“Ok. So, what do we do, then?” Justin asked.
“You live each day like it’s your last. Love your family and take care of each other. Start growing food if you have any greenhouses around here. If you can make it through the winter, then next spring, you grow enough food to last through the next year. You know, all that survival prepper crap you thought was crazy before. You learn to live like our great-great-great-great-grandparents did before the modern era. It’s that, or we die as a species.”
“Oh, well, that sounds nice and all, but what are you going to do?”
“We’re going to build a community far away from any major population centers and do exactly what I just told you. We have a few stops to make, but ultimately, we will be in central Washington State.”
“Ok, then. You convinced me. We’ll move and let you be on your way.”
“Thanks, Justin.”
“Hey, you guys are doing good things out there. Don’t let those bad guys stop you.”
“Uh, thanks,” Bill said with a furrowed brow. “You too, bud. Take care of yourselves.”
Bill and Cootch walked back to their vehicles while Justin and his guys pulled their roadblock back and to the convoy’s right, allowing access to the intersection. The convoy turned left and headed south on NH7.
The next town the convoy stopped in was Gothenburg, Nebraska. As they reached the edge of town, they turned left at the first street to skirt around the edge of town. On the north side of town was an open field. Bill stopped the convoy because he wanted to attract as many thrillers to that part of town as he could. He knew they would be getting gas on the south side, and he figured this was a good place to draw them to.
“Q, I’m gonna need your help on this one.”
“Copy.”
Bill ran back to Cootch’s truck and grabbed a couple of hundred-packs of firecrackers and a Saturn Missile Battery. Then he told Q to cut some extra fuse off of a large roll they’d acquired at the fireworks warehouse. He ran out to the middle of the field while Q unrolled several feet of fuse. Then he cut it into three sections. When he caught up to Bill, he asked, “Aren’t you worried about setting anything on fire?”
“Naw, the field has already been plowed under for the winter. And I wouldn’t expect anything to fly far enough to catch the one across the street on fire.”
“Ok. I don’t want anybody else chasing us if we can help it.”
“Well, it is the apocalypse, so anything is possible. Keep your eyes peeled.”
A couple of feet of fuse was attached to each firecracker pack, and then six feet was added to the missile pack. Bill lit the three fuses, and then the two ran back to the convoy.
Bill rolled down the windows on the 4Runner as he drove on. A minute later, he heard the firecrackers begin to pop off. As they were crossing the train tracks into the southern part of Gothenburg, Papaw reported hearing the Saturn Missiles going off. As Bill looked down each street they passed, he could see the thrillers amassing towards the sound of the fireworks.
“Sweet. Looks like that will work well for when we really need it too,” Bill said.
The Platte River ran parallel to the freeway and kept any random thrillers from wandering too far away from the town. The only way from the freeway to the town was a small bridge. The convoy split up again and stopped at competing gas stations to expedite the stop. There were a few hotels and some restaurants nearby that the sniper team kept an eye on. Soon, they were westbound on Interstate 80.
Just after sunset, they arrived at the Colorado Banner Lakes Wildlife Area. The location had been chosen because it was thirty minutes from the RV manufacturer Bill wanted to scout out. They pulled into the parking lot and parked in such a fashion that they could make a quick getaway. Bill hoped they’d arrived unnoticed, but no such luck. Within five minutes of being there, the loud exhaust from a high-performance motor could be heard coming towards them. The vehicle sounded like it was slowing down when a school bus pulled into the driveway, blocking the only exit. Bill reached into the 4Runner and switched on the light bar mounted to the roof rack, effectively blinding the driver of the bus. The bus had part of the engine sticking out of the hood and a V-shaped plow on the front.
“What the shit?” Bill said to Q.
“I don’t know, man. It looks like someone was really into cars when thrillers happened.”
“Yea, but a hot rod school bus?”
The doors to the bus opened, and a tall, lanky guy with a goatee slowly walked out with his hands up. He was squinting from the bright light.
“Hello? I didn’t mean to scare you. I saw you guys pass by and thought I would come welcome you to the neighborhood.”
“What’s your name, dude?” Bill said.
“Bo Holt. I live just up the road, in Keenesburg. I saw y’all pass through.”
“Walk towards us, Bo. Slowly. We won’t hurt you if you don’t try anything stupid.”
“Ok, man. You got it. Look, we don’t want any trouble. Please, my family is inside the bus.”
“No worries, Bo. As long as y’all don’t try anything dumb, nobody dies tonight. My name’s Bill, and this is Q. That’s close enough. Where did you say you were from?”
“Keenesburg. You guys passed through not but ten minutes ago. We figured y’all were friendly, and so we wanted to come say hello.”
“What makes you think we’re friendly?”
“You see, we haven’t seen too many people in the last couple of weeks. And the people who have come though only drove cars or trucks, and they didn’t stay for very long. They took what they could and burned down half the town. Since you all have RVs, it looks like you’re on the move, going from one place to another. You passed through town and didn’t stop. We figured you must be fairly nice and followed you to see where you were going.”
“Well, my friend, you are right about that. We are on the move,” said Cootch, coming up from behind him. “It’s ok, man. We’re just protecting ourselves here. Seems like there are people out to get us, so we can’t really trust anybody that just shows up out of the blue. You feel me?”
“Yea, I feel you.”
“Have your family come out so we can meet everyone,” Cootch said.
Bo slowly turned towards the bus and called his family out. Everyone was certain they had watched the whole thing play out, so it was no surprise when they came out of the bus with their hands in the air also.
“Everyone, this is my wife, Ginger, and our kids, Wendy and Paul.”
“It’s nice to meet all of you,” Bill said as they shook hands. “So, Bo,” Bill continued. “How do we know we can trust you?”
“You don’t. There is nothing I can say or do right now to make you trust us.”
“Very well, then. I need two things from you as a start. One, move the bus so it’s not blocking the only exit, and two, join us for dinner and drinks,” said Bill
“Sounds fine to me.”
Bill knew that D was going to be keeping an eye on them from her sniper’s hide and that if anything went sideways, she would take care of it.
After dinner, everyone was sitting around the fire, the four kids were roasting marshmallows, and quiet conversations were happening here and there.
“Bo, dude, you gotta tell me, what’s up with that fucking bus?” Bill asked.
“Well, I own, owned, a custom automotive shop before the world changed. All kinds of clientele from the Denver area would have me build wild rides for them. I love going fast, and so do my customers. When civilization stopped, man, what a shitty day that was. I had some stuff already at the shop for a drag car I was going to build for a customer. Once we finally started to figure out what was going on, I knew we needed a ride that could get us around safely.
> “I started driving around, looking for something that would fit the bill, and at the school was the bus. So, I left my Mustang—man, I miss that car already—and drove the bus home. The guy had had a Roush 588 big block crate engine shipped to me a month ago. I paired it up with the Roots supercharger and two Holly double pumpers, and voila! Super Bus.”
“Doesn’t the blower sticking out of the hood get filled with zombie shit?”
“Naw, I just rinse off the pre-filter every morning, and it runs like a top. Just ’cause it’s the end of the world, doesn’t mean we can’t still go fast! Then I built the plow for the front and welded plate steel over the side windows. I left small openings in case we needed to see out. It’s not bulletproof, but it is zombie proof.”
“Thrillers!”
“What?”
“We like to call them thrillers. Just seems better than zombies.”
“Ah, ok, then. Well, most of the seats are removed. There are a few foldup beds inside and a propane stove. The fuel for that ran out a few days ago. I hinged the top escape hatch so we can get on top if we need to without going outside.
“We tried to get some food from the grocery store, but other people had already beat us to it. We ransacked a few of the neighbors’ houses, but we didn’t get much. We’ve pretty much been living off Pop-Tarts and cold soup for the last few days.”
“So, is that why you followed us? Because you’re hungry?”
“Honestly, yes. I was hoping we could team up or we could join you guys. Whatever. We don’t have anybody else.”
“We will talk it over and let you know in the morning what we decide.”
Chapter 2. Montana.
Bob woke up early and excited after the previous night’s conversation with his brother. After two days spent with the Kentucky guys, he was certain he didn’t want them around any longer than possible. He dressed quickly and walked to Jim and Barbra’s house. He knocked on the door quietly and waited patiently. After a few minutes, he knocked again.
“What the fuck, Bob? It’s so early.” Jim was wearing a blue bathrobe.
“Good morning, Jim. Listen, I need to come in and talk. I need a huge favor from you two today.”
“Fine, fine, come in.” Once they were seated at the dining room table, Jim said, “Now, what’s so goddamned important that you wake me up at this hour?”
“I am sorry about that, but listen, I need you and Barbra to go up to Malta and possibly stay there for a few days.”
“Bob? What’s going on?” Barbra said as she walked over to the coffee pot. Her hair was a mess, and she was wearing a pink bathrobe with matching furry slippers.
“Morning, Barbra. I need your help. Well, we all do,” Bob said.
“Dude, if there are people up there that don’t want us there, I, I don’t know how to handle that. We just got Billings under control,” Jim said.
“I know, but listen…” Bob filled them in on what he’d discovered about the Kentucky guys, the RV people, and the fact this his brother was still alive. He finished with what he hoped Jim and Barbra would be able to accomplish.
“Ok, do you really think these people will stop if we flag them down?”
“Yes, if you do it like I told you to. They are our best hope for getting through this alive.”
“Why don’t we just set up an ambush here and take out the Kentucky guys ourselves?”
“You don’t understand how brutal they can be. They don’t give a flying fuck about anything, nor do they care who they hurt or who dies.”
“Ok. We will give it our best shot.”
“Awesome. You guys are the best. Here is a portable ham radio. My brother is going to be monitoring his at the jail. Keep him updated on what you find, and he will let me know. Turn it on at the top of every hour and leave it on for five minutes. He will contact you if anything changes here and we need you back.”
“All right. So, what happens if we get up there and we have to run for our lives?”
“Then you find another spot along Highway 2 and continue the plan. We don’t know yet if they are going that way, but Harv is going to put the word out on the ham to be on the lookout for them. That way, if someone sees them going a different direction, hopefully, they will let us know.”
“Sounds like a solid plan. We will be out of here within the hour. Thanks for letting us know about the new guys. Several of us didn’t have a good feeling about them. But we trust you, Bob. You saved our asses at the beginning of the new beginning. As long as you went along, so did we. You have to tell the others.”
“I will, probably not everything, but we will definitely be on our toes around here. Be safe.”
“Thanks. You too.”
Bob walked back home and got ready for the day.
Jim and Barbra packed a small bag and grabbed some non-perishables from the kitchen and tossed them in the slide-in camper on the back their truck. Jim had once owned a successful travel agency in town and had been able to afford a one-ton dually truck with four-wheel drive. They’d enjoyed camping and fly fishing on the weekends. He’d never considered himself a survivalist, but their outdoor lifestyle had saved their lives a few times in the last two weeks. They left the neighborhood just as the eastern horizon turned from inky darkness to shades of purple. They drove over to Billings Heights and headed north on Highway 87.
As they approached the town of Roundup, Jim reached over and pulled the short shifter into four-wheel drive. He’d had to do that a few times in Billings to get through hordes of Z’s. He was expecting there to be quite a few here too, as they hadn’t passed through there in over a month. Driving through downtown, they passed the grocery store. Most of the windows were broken, but there was no glass lying in the parking lot. The gas station across the street had burned to the ground, and a large hole had been blown into the parking lot. There was a shell of a car under what was left of the awning that covered the gas pumps. The streets all around them had been scorched and buckled. There were thousands of blackened human body parts lying haphazardly everywhere. Jim and Barbra could hear the crunch of bones under the heavy truck.
“What do you think caused that?” Barbra asked.
“Looks to me like someone sprayed everything down with gasoline and lit it on fire. That’s the only thing that would cause the road to melt like that. It probably attracted most of the Z’s in town if they weren’t already here. And I’m pretty sure the underground tanks blew up when the fire got to the vents. Seems like a pretty efficient way to exterminate a large quantity of them at once.”
“Yea, I can see that. Seems like a waste of all that gas though.”
“Be on the lookout. Whoever did that is probably still around.”
A few miles north of Roundup, as they were going up the far side of a wide, shallow valley, Jim noticed a glint of light behind them in the side view mirror. Just before they crested the top, he was able to make out another vehicle following them.
“Barbra, climb though the access window into the camper and get your deer rifle out. We have company. If they get too close and act like they’re going to ram us or something, shoot the driver.”
“Ok, I think I can. I’ve never shot anything from a moving vehicle before though.”
“I know, baby, just do the best you can. Maybe it will be enough to scare them off.”
Barbra struggled to squeeze through the small windows that were adjoined by a rubber seal. After she got her hips through, she spilled onto the floor in a heap with a thud. She picked herself up and lifted the mattress in the cabover. She removed the rifle that she was deadly accurate with and loaded it with six rounds of .270 WSM. She walked over to the camper door and looked out the window. Their pursuers had gotten very close.
She opened the window and leaned her left side against the bathroom door. She put the barrel of the gun in the window sill and gently pressed the end of it against the screen. The truck behind them must have noticed the camper window open, because the passenger rolled down hi
s window and she saw his arm come out. Jim had been speeding up as the other truck got closer, but its weight was no match for the much lighter truck. Barbra didn’t waste any time. She sighted through the scope and placed the crosshairs right on the driver’s face. As she squeezed the trigger, the window to the camper door exploded and showered her with glass. Her shot went high and wide because she was startled and ducked slightly. She racked the bolt and aimed again. When the attacker’s second shot hit the camper on the driver’s side, she was better prepared. Through her scope, she saw the bullet impact the driver’s face, and a mist of red erupted into the back seat. He jerked the wheel so hard to the left that the truck went sideways into the ditch. As soon as it struck the dirt embankment, it flipped into the air and landed upside down. Then it proceeded to roll more times than she could count.
Barbra looked over at the back wall just above the stove and was saddened by the fact that her beautiful camper had holes in it now. She hadn’t fully processed the thought that she’d just killed at least two humans. At that moment, she felt nothing different that if they had been an elk or deer. Sometime later that night, the full realization would hit her.
“Bob, what’s the plan for today?” asked Danny
“I figure we need to head over to Billings Heights and clear all the Z’s from around there. We kinda forgot about that area two days ago.”
“True, but at least we got the main part of town cleared out.”
“Yes, but I have no idea what the new boss is going to want today though. That may change things.”
“About that, some of us have been talking, and we’re not sure how to take this guy.”
“I want to have a meeting with everyone here in a bit. There are some things we need to discuss about that.”
“Cool, I’ll round everyone up.”
Five minutes later, all of the Billings survivors at the north settlement were gathered around.
“It has come to my attention,” Bob said, “that Danny was correct in his assessment. Our new friends are not everything they project themselves to be. They are dangerous men, GM especially. But we are not alone in this. There is a group of people out there that have fought them before, and we are sending people out find them.”
Beginning of the New Beginning Vol 3 Page 2
