by TW Brown
Maggie pulled what looked like little more than an axe handle with a metal spike attached to the end and followed Alex into the scrubby brush. I was on their heels after I put up a hand to keep Marshawn from joining in.
“Oh, now you want to be all worried about somebody’s injuries,” he grumped as I took off at a jog.
Once we had them put down, we looked around the boat landing and found a few good places to start a base. One of the first things we would need to do would be to erect a barricade.
“There is a backhoe or something along those lines back behind the park manager’s office,” Maggie said as we all walked up the road back to where the rest of our group waited.
“Great, hopefully we will be able to get it running.” I gave my machete a pat. “But something like that is going to bring the undead. We will need to have basically everybody else ready to fight off anything that heads our way.”
Alex gave me a slight nudge and raised her eyebrows and then gave a slight nod in the direction we were headed. I was pretty sure I understood her intent.
“So, we do have other members in our group,” I said as conversationally as possible.
“How many?” Maggie asked.
“Two women, a little boy…and a dog.” I had paused for a few breaths before I said that last part.
“A dog?” Todd showed the first real excitement I’d seen from him.
In just the brief time we’d been around this brother and sister, I’d figured out in a hurry that she was the one calling the shots. She’d really ripped him a new one for shooting Marshawn. The kid looked a bit beat down the whole time we walked back to the main area where the others waited. Now, at the mention of a dog, he was almost a new person.
“Yeah…a Newfie,” I answered.
“What is a Newfie?” Todd pressed, the excitement leaking through his voice.
“They are big and black—” I started.
“Like me,” Marshawn joked.
“They are known for being very lovable.”
“Me again,” Marshawn snickered as he popped in with another comment.
“And are amazing swimmers.” I paused and glanced over at the big man.
“Don’t look at me,” he scoffed. “I’m black. Me and swimming don’t jive at all.”
“You suck,” I shot back with a laugh and a shake of my head.
“Okay…I was just screwing with you. Actually, I swim pretty well. Used to spend the summers kicking it with my buds on the river. We’d hook up and take out the Jet Skis, then cruise around all day. We’d grill at night and catch a buzz.”
“Sounds like fun,” I said with a wistful sigh as I thought back to the previous summer.
Steph and I had spent two weeks camping with friends beside a river in the Coastal Range. It had been the first time we’d taken anything resembling a vacation together. By the time we got home, neither of us wanted to even mention the word ‘camping’ again. That had been when we discovered that the most we could tolerate was about three days. After that, it lost any of its appeal. Now, here I was, about to basically spend the rest of my life doing something along those lines.
We walked in silence for a bit. It hadn’t seemed nearly as far when we’d been in the SUV. It was Alex who asked what I think had been on my mind since meeting these two.
“So…what’s your story?” she said to Maggie.
“We came up from Corvallis for a concert with our high school choir. Shari was in Portland, and a bunch of us got to be part of the choir that sang back-up for her. After that, we were supposed to stay in Portland for three days and our show choir was supposed to do a few performances. Next was a trip to Canada to sing in a competition in Vancouver. We were on our way home…”
Her voice cracked just a bit and she swallowed to get her composure back before continuing. I glanced over and saw Todd’s face had become an unreadable mask.
“The bus driver literally abandoned us on the highway. He pulled over and I guess had called somebody and they pulled up, he got out, jumped in the car, and vanished.
“He’d taken us off I-5 and so nobody knew where we were. One of our chaperones had grown up outside of Portland, so she drove us here. She said that we needed to get away from the heavy traffic areas.” Maggie stopped talking and a sigh escaped her that sounded like all of her spirit had just fled from between her lips.
“But out here?” Alex pressed. “McIver? Hell, this entire area? Why would anybody come out here?” She shot a quick look at me. “No offense, but I don’t see what the big deal is about the place.”
“None taken,” I said with a shrug. “I think it is just remote enough to be off the beaten path, plus a lot of folks made this place an annual ritual for holidays like Memorial Day and the Fourth. Maybe it just has a connection with good memories.”
“I think that’s what Miss Bordal said,” Maggie sniffed and then wiped at her eyes. “When we got there, the place was almost totally empty. The only other person there was the park manager guy and his family. He tried to make us leave, but Miss Bordal and Mister Geddes pretty much told him that we weren’t going anywhere. The freeway was closed heading south and Portland was crazy with what were initially being called rioters…but we all know what they really were. Then martial law was put in effect and we were stuck.”
“Tell them about the police man,” Todd piped up suddenly.
“Oh yeah,” Maggie drew that one word out like she had forgotten. Although, as she related the story, I didn’t see how.
“This police car showed up one night. The officer was this big guy. His arm was all bandaged and he only made it two steps from his car when he fell flat on his face. Miss Bordal and Mister Geddes helped carry him to the office. That night, we heard screams from the little building. We were all still sleeping in the bus at that time. I was one of the few people that went to see what was happening.”
“One of the idiots,” Todd muttered under his breath.
Maggie gave him an elbow to the ribs that didn’t look very gentle, but to the boy’s credit, he didn’t show any signs that it hurt.
“We got to the door when it flew open and the manager guy’s wife stumbled out. She was holding her throat, but even in the weak light of the lantern somebody was carrying, you could see all the blood. We could hear fighting, and then the worst scream I ever heard in my life…up until that day…came from the building. I still can’t believe that noise came from Mister Geddes.
“We ran back to the bus and shut the doors, but a few minutes later, Mister Geddes came out of the building and came to the bus, trying to get in. It was Miss Bordal who went out and killed Mister Geddes. Although…I guess he was already dead. But none of us were ready for it and we shut her out of the bus.”
Now Maggie’s voice choked off. Tears started to run down her cheeks and Alex put an arm around her in what seemed like a very awkward gesture for her.
“That policeman, the park guy, and his wife attacked her, and we just watched.”
My head turned, and I could see that Todd also had tears leaking from his eyes. He stared back at me without any shame. I was kinda jealous. I didn’t think I could do that in front of the others right now…much less total strangers.
“We all hid at the back of the bus while she screamed…screamed that terrible scream. She begged us…called some of us by our names as they tore her apart. In the end, she said terrible things…and we deserved it.” Todd sniffed. “Then…what was left of her got up and joined the others pawing at the bus trying to get in. At some point, the lantern had been dropped and we were in the dark. It was so black you could hardly see your hand in front of your face. When the sun came up, I think most of us wished it hadn’t. There was so much blood.”
We walked in silence a while again. The only sounds were our feet crunching in the gravel of the access road. Sun filtered through the trees and illuminated the dust motes that were still settling from when we’d driven through.
“I finally couldn’t take it,
” Maggie whispered. “And so those were the first zombies I ever killed. I put down Miss Bordal, the park guy, his wife, and the policeman.”
“By yourself?” Marshawn asked, a bit of awe leaking through in his voice. Maggie nodded, and I noticed a flush in her cheeks that had nothing to do with the tears leaking from her eyes. “So, you’re kind of a bad ass.”
That last remark was said with sincere respect. I had to agree. Considering she was a teenaged girl and had taken down a handful of the undead on her own while everybody else that had been with her did nothing…bad ass was the tamest thing I would think to call her. But that brought up something.
“What happened to the rest of your group?” I asked. “You said there were a bunch of you from this choir, right? Where are they now?”
There was a long silence as we continued to walk along the gravel road with its two distinct ruts where countless sets of tires had rolled. I shot a look Todd’s direction, but he was staring at his feet as he walked. Obviously he wasn’t going to talk, Then I realized I couldn’t blame him. I’d just scolded him recently about giving up his numbers. Of course, his response had been a lie, but still…
“We’re all that is left.” Maggie sniffed and wiped at her running nose with one sleeve before she continued. “Some of them vanished in the night, a few got bit and…are gone. The rest either died or were taken when those…animals came through the other night.”
“We came here thinking to fortify it and make a safer place to stay,” I explained as I could see the opening in the trees up ahead. We were almost back to Chewie, Michael, and the others. “If you don’t have a problem with it, this is where we want to make our base.”
“Why?” Todd blurted. “Wouldn’t it be better to find a house?”
“Not really.” I gave a shake of my head. “For one, without power, they are only going to be good for shelter. They will be cold and, unless we find one with an adequate fireplace, offer nothing in the way of heat. But even with a fireplace, the results will be negligible. Also, there will be no ready source of water. And sewage would quickly become a problem.”
“But why here? Why this place?” Maggie took up the question.
I explained the dire need for water as well as being someplace remote to hopefully prevent the likely reoccurrence of more raiders like the ones they’d already encountered. I told them about the little island I recalled and how we could make it into a fallback location in an emergency.
Once I finished with my explanation, I saw them both nodding. They understood, or at least were pretending to.
“And we can be a part of your group just like that?” Maggie pressed.
“I don’t see why not.”
The pair stopped and stepped away from us, heads bowed together as they whispered back and forth for a moment. After a few minutes, they broke their conference and Maggie turned to face me.
“We accept your offer.”
It hadn’t been much in the way as an offer, more like a suggestion, but I was glad. Something told me that we needed to try and bolster our numbers.
While it was the norm for most of the zombie stories I watched or read to have just a few people band together, I was discovering a steep learning curve that required more than what I’d learned from the fictional versions of such a thing.
A thought came to me and I realized that the only times there were large groups in these things, they tended to be the bad guys…the raiders who hit the small cluster of “good” guys. Heck, up to this point, that part had been correct. The people like Don Evans and his sort were banding together in large numbers so they could hit groups and take their stuff.
It was time to flip the script. My group was going to grow, and we weren’t going to be a bunch of heartless raiders. We would grow into a force that could repel attacks as we brought in more survivors that allowed us to become an outpost of humanity.
There were still so many questions. Were the zombies going to eventually wind down as their food source depleted? From what I was seeing, the undead were not looking like they were weakening. They simply continued to exist.
One thing I had to cling to if I was going to keep my sanity was the simple fact that all of the rules from the society we’d all known just a few months ago were null and void. Setting up this new community was going to be a trial of errors. I could only hope that I wasn’t going to get somebody killed by making the wrong decision.
As we neared the end of the road, and the open field of the actual park portion of McIver became more clearly visible, I felt a lump in my throat.
I hadn’t realized I’d stopped walking until Marshawn gave me a nudge. “You okay?”
I kept staring straight ahead, my vision on the verge of blurry as a hint of moisture congregated in my eyes. I watched as Chewie bounded through the grass that was already a few inches high in a sign of the coming spring. Running along beside him was Michael. The boy was laughing. I could hear it from where I stood. It was an incredible sound. That laughter was occasionally punctuated with a deep ‘woof’ from the bounding Newfoundland.
In that moment, everything was as close to normal as we’d probably ever see for the foreseeable future. We were about to embark on building what we hoped would become a stronghold able to shelter us and assist in keeping us safe from those who wished us harm.
Suddenly, Chewie stopped. She sniffed at the air, and then turned our direction. With the same deep bark I’d come to know and love that greeted me every day in the ‘Before’ when I returned from work, she came for me at a gallop.
10
Kids and Kitties
The next few days, we scoured the riverbank. We selected a location not too far from the boat launch area and got to work. We had some basic tools, but it also became very clear that we needed more than we had managed to scrape together. We found more implements in a shack by the groundkeeper’s place.
Marshawn found the keys, and the best news we’d had early on was that the backhoe had a full tank and there was even a barrel with about twenty or so gallons left, a pump, and three five-gallon tanks. That meant we would dig a trench first thing.
The zombies were a very infrequent problem unless we were running the noisy machine. What was worse were the occasional gunshots echoing throughout the countryside. Twice, I’m sure I heard screams. The one thing we didn’t hear were any vehicles.
At last, we had a nice trench that was about ten feet wide and at least eight feet deep. We’d set ourselves up far enough back from the river that we didn’t have to worry about water flooding in. We’d wanted it a bit deeper, but we hit a nasty layer of rock that Marshawn said was probably old volcanic stuff and decided we would be happy with what we had.
We’d put up a single six-person tent, and always had one person on watch as we got started. Once the trench was finished—a two-day job—I decided that it would be good for us to start hitting the very few residences along the road where the entrance to McIver ran. The houses up here were the multi-million-dollar types, and I didn’t hold much hope that the group that had come through and attacked Maggie and Todd’s group hadn’t already stripped it. Still, if we didn’t at least look…
It was decided that Alex and Todd would come with me. We all agreed that we needed to have at least two people running the foraging missions together. Since I’d suggested this particular run to see if we could find anything useful in the gigantic homes, I got to choose my team.
It was also made clear that either Alex, Marshawn, or I would have to stay behind each time. We had that particular conversation away from Darya and Tracy since we didn’t want to rile them up or make them feel like they couldn’t be trusted.
Because Marshawn was nursing his having recently been shot, I chose Alex to be on this run. Also, I wanted to get a better grasp of Todd’s capabilities, so I added him to the team. Maggie had protested, insisting that she be the one to go, but I explained that I had no worries about her ability to handle herself.
“So you’re
taking my brother because…?” Her tone was hard, and I felt the challenge coming through loud and clear.
“Because we need to know he can handle himself,” I answered.
“He’s handled himself fine so far.”
“Yeah,” Marshawn snorted, “tell that to my shoulder.”
“He thought you guys were those raiders returning for more,” Maggie hissed. “You have no idea what those people were like.”
I thought of my encounters with Don Evans and Natasha. “Actually, I think I do.”
She tried to insist that she’d be a bigger help, but I shut it down and made the plans for Alex, Todd, and I to head out at first light the next morning.
***
Light was stretching things. We woke to a steady rain and a frigid wind that cut through to the bone. Part of me wanted to put it off for better weather, but I didn’t feel like debating with Maggie for another day. Plus, our food stores were getting thin already. While I did not expect to find much, there was always the possibility we’d find something that looters hadn’t scooped up.
The three of us headed up the long, paved entry drive as the blackness was pushed back by the gloomy gray. We all picked out our own version of what we felt made good survival gear the night before, but had to modify things a bit to compensate for the rain.
I didn’t like wearing a third layer of clothing. I felt as if it made me even less maneuverable, but getting sick was a situation made much worse given the current situation of the world.
By the time we reached South Springwater Road, I was already soggy and my nose was stuffed up. We had two immediate choices. One of them was an older residence that looked like it had been around forever. That one was directly across from us. The other was one of the huge mansions with the great view of Mount Hood that folks paid millions for. It had a heavy iron fence with an electric gate, but oddly enough, that only ran along the front of the residence.
