America The Dead Survivors Stories (Vol. 1)

by Sweet, W. G.

  In spite of how ridiculous it seemed, he checked the truck over anyway. There was one small gouge in the front passenger fenders paint, probably due to some debris flying up and hitting it, but other than that the truck seemed fine, and none the worse for the hurried trip. He pushed it from his mind as he walked away from the truck and back to the fire.

  Beth was stirring a stew like mixture, to keep it from burning on the hot coals.

  “I think it's ready,” she said as he approached the fire, and squatted down beside her. “Hungry?” she gave him a small spoonful to taste.

  “Oh yeah,” he responded, and rubbed his stomach with one hand to show her it was true. He sat down close to the fire, and turned his thoughts away from the truck.

  Billy tried a tired smile on his face as he took a bowl of the stew. Beth sat down next to him, and they began to eat as the last traces of light seeped from the sky.

  April18th

  Beth awoke a few hours before dawn and sat just outside the small tent, lost in thought.

  Billy had mentioned the day before, that it was probably not safe to use the main road any longer. She knew now that he was right. At first she had thought that his reasoning had been influenced by the previous attack they had experienced, but now she was not so sure. Now she was convinced that he had already known, that he had somehow seen what was ahead, and knew that the only way for them to travel safely was via the back roads.

  As she sat in the darkness waiting for the sunrise, she realized that she too had known. She had only to recall their conversation of the previous night. She sat and tried to make sense of all the thoughts that seemed to be running loose in her mind.

  She slowly became aware that the sky was beginning to color with the first rays of sunrise. The silent, night-black forest surrounding them began to awaken. Birds began to whistle in the pre-dawn air. Their whistled conversations flew back and forth, and were soon joined by the chatter of a multitude of squirrels who also called the forest home. The symphony created by the forest inhabitants began to break apart her troubled thoughts as she listened, the black mood that had begun to descend upon her finally lifted as the first brilliant rays of sunlight began to stream down through the thick pines of the forest.

  She rose slowly and began to re-kindle the fire. When Billy awoke a few minutes later, she had coffee heating, and had already prepared a small breakfast from the left over dinner of the night before.

  Lazy curls from the wood fire drifted slowly up through the trees into the morning air, the smoky scent hung in the air, and invoked nothing but good feelings in her. When Billy crawled out of the tent, the black mood that had threatened to envelop her was completely gone, and had been replaced with a deep feeling of peace that calmed and soothed her soul. She knew they would have to be careful on their trek east, but she was no longer overpowered by the sense of foreboding that had washed over her earlier.

  “Morning,” Billy said, as he sat down next to her and took the steaming cup of coffee she offered, “Sleep okay?”

  She considered her answer only briefly, “No,” she replied, “I woke up a couple of hours ago and couldn't get back to sleep. I kept thinking about things, Billy. Like what's ahead for us, and I couldn't shake the feeling that we have to be careful, but I shouldn't spend my time sweating this stuff,” she looked into his eyes as she finished speaking.

  “I know how you feel. I feel the same way,” Billy said, “I spent a long time thinking about it last night before I could finally get to sleep. I guess I just don't care anymore. We could drive ourselves crazy trying to reason it... whatever happened, happened, and we'll just face what we have to as we go,” he paused for a second. “I think truthfully that we'll be okay, I really do. If I didn't I would say so. We'll just keep going.”

  Billy finished speaking, and when he did he pulled Beth to him and held her.

  “Are you afraid?” he asked her.

  “No,” she replied, “not afraid of death anyhow, maybe just afraid of turning... I don't want that, Billy, I really don't,” she began to cry as she finished, and Billy held her, comforting her as best he could. I won't let that happen, he thought, not at all.

  Aloud he said, “Beth?” he waited until she looked up at him. “I think that we just have to be careful so that doesn't happen, you know, like if we just went ahead with no thought to what we were doing, we could find ourselves in a bad situation, or we might not be able to think quickly enough if something happened. But I don't, and can't believe that we will. Not if we're careful, Beth, and that's probably what we're being made to see.” He was looking over the top of her head as he spoke. “I think,” he said, changing the subject, “that those stitches need to come out... Might hurt a little.”

  She looked up at him from his arms. “Might?” She asked.

  The surrounding symphony continued as the rays of sunlight fought their way deeper into the forest to awaken its inhabitants; they held each other and allowed the calls and whistles of bird-talk to dispel their fears. Its calming effect soon overcame the fear and apprehension thinking of the trip had heaped upon them. Billy worked with a pair of nail clippers, tweezers, and peroxide, pulling each piece of dental floss from her head.

  “Put some iodine on it too,” Beth told him as he finished.

  “That's gonna hurt like a bitch,” Billy told her.

  “Really? Like a bitch?” Beth asked.

  “I didn't mean it exactly like that,” Billy told her. He let the dropper suck up some iodine and then squeezed small drops on each small hole that the dental floss had slipped out of.

  “Oh,” Beth said. “That does hurt like a bitch,” she gritted her teeth as Billy continued until each hole was done. A few minutes late he was done and Beth got up to walk it off. “The hard part is that I want to itch it,” she told him.

  Billy nodded his head and looked into the eyes of a small gray ground squirrel that sat watching them on a gnarled limb of an older nearby pine. Its tiny hand-like limbs were clasped together across its white belly, and to Billy it seemed as though the squirrel were an old and wise man, sitting and watching them from his pine perch. The squirrel chattered briefly, adding its voice to the bird-talk of the forest, and then scampered across the limb, into the upper reaches of the pine, out of sight.

  Beth came back a few moments later. “Well, I guess we should get moving if we're going to.” Billy nodded his head in agreement, and said. “We need to go into the next city or town and get a map, Beth.”

  “I was wondering about that,” she answered, “Wouldn’t the park office have maps?” She lowered her head. “Itches a lot less... How's it looking?”

  “I didn't think about that, but yeah they should. We can check on the way out, and if they do it'll save us having to travel the main road into the next city, we'll still need a state map eventually though.” He looked her head over. “Looks good. Your head probably won't get infected.”

  “Right,” she replied as she stood upright once more. “But if it gets infected you are the first son of a bitch I'm eating.”

  Billy looked comical for a moment and then burst into laughter.

  A few moments later, after they had both quieted down, Beth spoke. “The map... Even if it's not a state map it should at least get us heading in the right direction, Billy. And maybe we should avoid the main roads... Just in case someone is following us... Sounds crazy, I know.”

  “Even if we don't find a map we can get ourselves pointed in the right direction anyway, and eventually we'll have to come to some sort of small town, or village, and then we'll get a map, okay?” he asked.

  “Just so long as you don't think I'm being stupid, or foolish,” she said.

  “You don't have to explain it to me, I know. I feel it too, and I have no intention of not listening,” Billy stated calmly. “In fact I intend to listen to whatever either of us feels. I think it’s probably the only way to make sure we stay alive...” He paused briefly, and then changed the subject. “We do need to pick u
p ammunition though, you need it for that machine pistol of yours, and I think I'll pick up some for that machine gun I took from that guy. It seems a lot better to have that in my hands than the Remington...” he shrugged his shoulders, “You think?”

  “Yeah, I do, if I hadn't had the machine pistol, I think we would've been in deep trouble. That Remington is nice, but... it just can't match that machine gun, no way, and I really think we'll need it before we get... Well, wherever it is we get to,” she finished lamely.

  With that they both got up and began to break camp. Together they loaded the Suburban. Billy drowned the small fire and they edged the truck through the trees and out of the camp site, to the accompaniment of the bird-talk and the chatter of the squirrels.

  When they reached the small park office, just before the main road, they stopped the truck and went into the rustic log building to search for a map. They had only hoped for a simple map of the region surrounding the state park, but were instead rewarded with a selection of state maps.

  “Kentucky?” Billy asked.

  Beth nodded. “Otherwise we'll need a boat.”

  Billy found the next large city, Sturgis, and was surprised by how far they had traveled during the night. When they were back in the truck, Billy checked the gas tanks. One was full, but the other was barely above a quarter. He switched to the full tank, and said, “We'll have to get gas soon, does the map show any small towns?” Beth studied the map before her as Billy drove slowly out of the park to the main road.

  She traced out a route on the map with one finger as she spoke. “Follow 1508, Billy. That should bring us to route 109. That runs right into Sturgis,” she paused briefly as she continued to trace the route. “Morganfield is north on 60. We should be able to get gas and ammunition there, If not in Sturgis.”

  “Well, it’s not a small route, but it is smaller,” he said, “and that's a help.”

  Route 109 was not clogged with stalled traffic they found, when they reached it a few minutes later. Less than an hour of driving took them into Sturgis, it was not as large as Morganfield, but, Billy reasoned, it should fill their needs.

  They had both decided that it would be unwise to split up for any purpose at all, and so when Billy eased the Suburban into a paved area in front of a sporting goods store, they locked the truck, and taking their weapons with them, headed in the direction of the store together. Billy had reasoned locking the truck up simply enough, if someone did try to get into it, they would have to break the glass, and hopefully they would hear that from inside the store. He would have liked to park closer, and not risk leaving the truck in the lot, or being so far away from it, but all the spaces in the front of the store were full.

  As they left the truck and began to walk across the asphalt, Beth suddenly stopped short. When she did, Billy automatically raised his rifle.

  “What?” he asked in a near whisper.

  Instead of answering she pointed with the machine pistol, she had also raised, toward one of the vehicles in front of the store. Billy hadn't noticed when they had exited the truck, but the low rumble of the trucks idle suddenly came to him in the clear morning air. Stupid! I should have been paying attention. Before he could take the thought any further, a tall gray-haired older man stepped from the store, and, after seeing them frozen in position in the parking lot, quickly ducked back inside.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Billy and Beth

  April 19th

  The sight of the man broke the paralysis that had held them, and they both quickly took cover behind an old station wagon parked in the lot. Billy continued to mentally berate himself for not hearing the sound of the running truck when he had gotten out of the Suburban. Stupid-Stupid-Stupid! He thought as he dropped to the ground and tried to crawl under the old car.

  He couldn't get all the way under it, but he did get under it far enough to be able to look into the open doorway of the sporting goods store. What he could see of it was empty, but he could not see far enough into the gloom of the interior to see whether there was just the old man, or others waiting with him in the shadowy store.

  “Hey!” a young sounding male voice called from within the store. “Don't shoot, okay? We don't want any trouble with you.”

  The voice let Billy and Beth know that there were at least two people in the store, and a few seconds later, they could hear the soft weeping of a woman coming from the store as well.

  “We don't want trouble either,” Billy called.

  From under the car he could see a jeans-clad pair of legs separate from the shadows, and cautiously walk toward the open doorway. “What do you think, Beth,” Billy whispered, “you believe 'em?”

  “Only one way to find out,” she replied, as she backed out from under the car and stood slowly.

  A young man was standing framed in the doorway, a shotgun resting in his hands. He saw her rise from behind the car, quickly followed by Billy. His shotgun remained in his hands, but he did not turn it in their direction, instead he seemed to be purposely holding it away from them, and they could both see that he was frightened.

  Billy and Beth both kept their guns turned away, but still they were on guard, as Beth spoke into the silence that had descended on the parking lot.

  “Look, we really don't want any trouble either. We only stopped because we saw the truck running,” she lied. She thought it probably wouldn't be a good idea to let them know they had stopped for ammunition. “We haven't seen any... many,” she corrected herself, “people. We'll leave, if it’s what you want,” she finished.

  The young man’s grip on the shotgun seemed to loosen as she had spoken, and he seemed to be not as fearful as he had been.

  “We haven't seen any good people,” the young man said, “but we have seen a lot of bad ones.” He seemed to be asking them which group they belonged to.

  Beth and Billy both relaxed a small amount, and Billy spoke. “We've run into some bad ones ourselves,” he said. He considered for a moment, and then moved from behind the old station wagon, and out into the open. “Can we talk?” he asked. He was careful to keep the machine gun pointed down as he had moved from behind the car, and he forced himself to keep it pointed at the pavement as the young man seemed to consider what he had said.

  The young man had lifted his shotgun from the pavement as Billy had stepped from behind the old car, now he dropped it back toward the pavement, and answered. “Well, come on, I guess,” he replied. The older man they had seen initially and a young red haired woman stepped out of the shadowy interior as he finished speaking. They were both armed, but both kept their weapons pointed down at the pavement.

  Billy looked at Beth. “Well?” he asked. She nodded her head, and they walked slowly toward the front of the store. Once the two groups were facing each other, Beth spoke. “I'm Beth, and this is Billy,” she said, pointing at Billy.

  “Delbert,” the older man said, stepping forward, “and this is John,” he said pointing at the dark haired young man, “and Peggy.” He paused for a few seconds. “Might've over-reacted a bit, I guess, but we haven't seen nothin' but bad the last few days. Thought you might be some of a group we ran into yesterday... things is awful balled up, ain't they? It’s hard to tell who you can, or can't trust.” With that the man seemed to consider them briefly, and then set his rifle aside.

  The man’s fear, that had been so evident once Beth and Billy were standing face to face with him, seemed to melt away. Beth stuffed the machine pistol into her jeans, and Billy slung the rifle over his shoulder before he stuck out his hand. “Good to meet you,” Billy said, “I think we were beginning to think we wouldn't meet anyone at all who wouldn't try to kill us.” Beth stuck out her hand as Billy finished speaking, and the young man and woman put their own weapons aside and stepped away from the sidewalk and shook the offered hands.

  “You from here?” Delbert asked, as he also shook their hands.

  “L.A.,” Beth replied, “heading east, how about you?”

  “Tex
as,” Peggy, the young woman said, “You headin' east for the same reason we are?”

  “Kind'a feels like we're drawn in that direction,” Delbert said, “can't explain it a lot better than that I guess.”

  His accent was slight, Billy noticed, not thick like some he had heard. “We feel the same way. Tried South... South is no good,” Billy said. He looked at Beth who nodded before he continued. “We could all make the trip together,” he offered, “It might be a lot safer that way?” Beth echoed the invitation.

  “See no reason not to,” Delbert said slowly, as he turned his eyes to the couple beside him. “Peggy, John?”

  “I'm for it,” John agreed. He had a slightly thicker accent, Beth noticed, well, maybe not an accent really, she told herself, he just talks somewhat slowly.

  “Me too,” Peggy said, and a smile lit up her face as she spoke. “No lie. I've been pretty scared, and it'll be good to have more of us, I think.”

  “I lied,” Beth said, and then hastily continued, “We didn't stop because we saw you. We stopped because we need ammunition. We got ambushed, sort of, and... Well, we got out of it. I didn't mean to lie, I just wasn't sure we could trust you, and I didn't think it would be a good idea to tell you we were running low, not knowing if... you know...” she finished lamely.

  “Don't give it a thought,” Delbert said, “can't say as I blame you. In fact,” he said reaching for his shotgun, and opening the breech. “We did too, but there isn't any here. I hoped to scare you off, but the truth is, we're out of ammunition ourselves. If you had been... well, bad, I guess we would've been screwed.” He finished by setting the empty shotgun against the door frame, resting butt down on the pavement.

  “You mean,” Billy said, “you're out completely?”

  “Oh yeah,” John said, “I've been out since yesterday, and whatever was in this shop is gone. Somebody cleaned it out.”