Chapter 25: Colorado Carwash
Randy finished arranging supplies around the kids in the wagon. They’d done pretty well for themselves with this house. They’d collected a ton of camping equipment plus the four wheelers plus a nice collection of weapons and ammunition from the walk-in closet upstairs. The prepper who’d owned this house must not have been home when people started turning. Kelly had made Randy leave some of the guns behind and flatly refused to let him take the compound hunting bow he found. He’d envisioned himself silently shooting arrows into sentries off the top of a guard tower. She’d envisioned him completely missing any target and probably hurting his hand or wrist.
She’d crushed that dream along with his desire to take all the guns with them. She did agree they should take every last bullet though.
“We’re not giving you guys guns.” Kelly told Zoey for the fifth time. She shot her husband a pissed off look. He’d come downstairs and handed each of the little kids a .22 revolver. He’d found six of them upstairs along with a box full of ammunition for them. Considering the rest of the weapons were much higher calibers he assumed the .22s were for the kids or maybe for some backyard target practice. He’d shoved the smaller weapons to the side immediately once told he wouldn’t be able to take every single gun with them.
Kelly ended up agreeing to take eight rifles, four shotguns and all the ammunition for those that they could find. Feeling much better armed they’d turned to finding food. The pantry in the house had been fully stocked with canned foods so they took a variety of those. The box of MREs they found at the bottom of the closet got them both excited. The plastic bags of “Meals Ready to Eat” should stay unspoiled until approximately the end of time.
They buried the three little kids on the wagon underneath a mountain of supplies. On top of food, camping gear and weapons they grabbed all the gas they could find. With the littles loaded in the wagon Randy climbed on the four-wheeler and started it up. Myriah climbed on behind him. Kelly mounted the other four-wheeler with Caitlyn and got it started. Randy wished they could’ve found another wagon since there was plenty more supplies they could have pilfered.
Driving slowly to get the hang of it they went out of the yard and turned away from the main street onto the driveway that disappeared into the woods. They drove slowly up the paved road until it started to veer off back towards the highway. Randy had been expecting this and turned off the road into the woods. There was no defined trail, but the trees were spaced far apart. The ground was made up mostly of leaves, roots and Georgia clay. He looked down at the compass mounted on the handlebars of his ATV and made sure they were going north.
They drove slowly through the woods as day turned to dusk. Before long they could hear drops of rain pattering on the leafy canopy above them. Randy stopped so they could all get rain gear on. They pulled a tarp over the pile of supplies and tied it down. Seeing everyone moving around in the camouflage ponchos Randy voiced the opinion that they just keep those on as long as they were hiding in the woods. The random hoodies and brightly colored shirts most of them were wearing didn’t exactly blend in. Kelly was sporting a bright pink North Face puffer jacket. The thing was so bright it should’ve come with batteries.
The rain was making them all even more miserable. He assumed all the kids would end up with the sniffles, but it was going to massively aid in their escape. Not only was it covering up their trail, but the rain was also making it so the noise from the four wheelers shouldn’t travel very far. They were already driving slowly to conserve gas and keep the noise down so as long as they had a decent head start, they should be good to go.
It’d be completely dark soon. He wanted to get camp setup, so they had someplace to sleep while they waited for the sun to come back up. The problem was he didn’t want to waste the advantages the rain was giving them. Waffling between risking getting stuck in the dark or having someone see their headlights he decided their best course was to get as much distance between themselves and Ball Ground as they possibly could. They’d just have to drive slowly and methodically.
A large square shadow glimpsed in front of them indicated a house was coming up. It looked like a big one that may have some more supplies in it. Other than gas Randy was feeling pretty good about what they already had though. He stopped his four-wheeler and waited for Kelly to catch up. She drove up beside him crushing down weeds and branches that were in her way. One of the worse things so far about driving these through the woods was you couldn’t avoid getting hit in the face by branches periodically. Not to mention the spider webs.
“I say we take a quick look up here and see if they have any gas cans. If not, we keep going. I’m hoping we get into the middle of the real woods here at some point.” Randy said. Kelly nodded and leaned over to give him a quick kiss. It turned into a lot of work as they both had to lean way over but the kids saying gross made it all totally worth it. Everyone sat up a little taller and gripped their guns a little tighter when they rolled into the backyard of a large green farmhouse style home.
Randy made a beeline for the shed sitting in the corner of the yard after he’d scanned the area for any obvious threats. He jumped down off his ride and walked past a chicken coop full of chicken skeletons and loose feathers over to the shed. The shed was secured with a large wooden lever that could be locked into place with a padlock but wasn’t. Happy he didn’t have to take the time to use the loppers Randy opened up the shed. It was full of farming junk including a big red can of gas. He grabbed the can and got it on the wagon after making Zoey slide way over.
The rain had started coming a lot harder while they’d been in the yard. Randy felt the water dripping down the back of his neck where he’d bunched up the hood of the poncho when he put it on. In the dark with the rain coming down everyone was getting cold and wet. Randy cast a longing look at the nice warm, expensive looking home on the other side of the yard. There was probably even a fireplace inside it. He sighed before hopping back on the four-wheeler and leading them back into the woods. Hoping there were no more houses in front of them and that if there were, they weren’t staffed with a bunch of Brotherhood lookouts he flipped on the headlights.
It was so much easier to drive when you could see in front of you. He kept moving at a steady five miles per hour into the rugged country. He tried to keep them heading due north, but it was almost impossible given the hilly nature of the countryside they were in and having to maneuver around trees and bush. Kelly followed dutifully along behind him. He imagined she was cussing him out for coming up with this brilliant idea. If it got them up to Tennessee or South Carolina without being shot, she’d have to change her tune. He was really hoping she was going to have to do some tune changing soon because this riding through the woods at night in the pouring rain totally sucked. He was on the verge of hating himself for having the idea.
Back in the wagon the kids were trying to sleep under the tarp. They were crammed together with all kinds of junk around them. Ali held up her hand and they stopped for her to take a bathroom break behind the closest tree. While she was taking care of that Caitlyn and Myriah busted out some crackers and passed them around to everyone. Randy ate a cracker wishing he had some cheese whiz. He wasn’t actually sure they’d still made it before the apocalypse happened, but he remembered it being delicious. If they could find some on the shelves of some rundown grocery store, he was sure it’d still taste just as good as the day it came off the production line.
Cheese whiz and crackers dispensed everyone hopped back aboard the redneck express. They continued snaking through the woods. It was getting very late, or just pretty early, when Randy slammed on the brakes and flipped off his lights. He jumped off the ATV and ran back to Kelly who’d already gotten the idea and flipped off her lights. She may be sleepy, but she was still able to figure out that Randy slamming on the brakes and jumping off his ATV probably meant trouble. Trouble in this day and age was always best dealt with by turning off the lights and hiding. If that d
idn’t work, then it was guns and running for your life.
Randy pointed out what he’d seen to Kelly. Up ahead through the trees he could just make out some lights bobbling around. They looked like lights off cars on a road.
“What do we do?” Kelly asked. She’d been hoping they were home free since they’d gotten out of the subdivision. They’d drive though this horrible weather and eventually end up somewhere safe they could raise the kids. They’d already been through so much. How much more could possibly get thrown at them?
“We either try and take another route, hide here until they leave, or fight.” Randy said. He’d been thinking about what they could do and those were the only three reasonable options he’d come up with.
Up ahead the lights suddenly all went out. It was close to time for the sun to come up but definitely still dark enough where it’d make sense to keep your headlights on.
“That doesn’t seem good.” Kelly commented. A minute later they heard the high-pitched whine of dirt bikes. That definitely wasn’t good.
“Weapons ready.” Randy hissed thinking fast. The enemy knew they were trying to go north. What if they cut hard to the right? He’d rather end up in South Carolina than Tennessee anyway. Even though the people in South Carolina had seemed like total pricks. The wrong choice right now and they’d be caught. He doubted they could manage to escape a third time. The burden of making the choice on which way to go was making him freeze up.
“You ok?” Kelly asked stepping closer to him. “What do we do?”
“We cut east now. South is right back towards them. We just saw the headlights to the north and the highway is west. They’re bound to be patrolling the highway regularly. Follow me. Guns ready.” Randy turned the ATV eastwards and started driving. He sped up hoping it’d be enough to dodge the men on the dirt bikes who were searching for them.
They’d been going for a few minutes when Randy slowed down again. They were coming up on a clearing and he wanted to keep the noise from their engines down. Not wanting to risk exposing them by driving through the open yard around the home he turned south to skirt the house. His choice was rewarded when they heard the dirt bikes in the yard of the house they’d passed up. These near misses were too much. This wasn’t sustainable. Randy’s brain screamed they needed to get out of here and haul ass to the north instead of being driven eastwards like they were now.
The high-pitched whine of the dirt bikes got even higher as they were driven around the perimeter of the yard. Randy was working to get more distance between themselves and the bikes before they turned east again. There was a copse of trees they had to drive through coming up. When they drove into them Kelly was the first to notice how they were planted in neat rows. They’d driven into an apple orchard. The scary thing about it was with the trees lined up like that it made it a lot easier for someone to see them.
Randy noticed they were in an orchard and recognized the same issues as Kelly did. He rolled the throttle to pick up speed and drove around a particularly big tree. He hit a large root going too fast and turning too hard. The wagon with the girls in it and all the supplies started to flip over. He recognized his mistake and braked the ATV to a quick stop standing up and leaning in the opposite direction to try and counter the weight of the wagon. The wagon righted itself and all the girls looked up at him with wild eyed expressions at almost being flipped over. He looked back at Kelly and shrugged his shoulders in apology for his lousy driving and flashed her a quick smile. She started to smile back at him then he saw her eyes open wide in surprise.
A man had stepped out from behind a tree directly in front of Randy. He looked as surprised to see them as they were to see him. He had a shotgun on him which he started swinging up to his shoulder while he yelled for them to freeze. Randy goosed the engine of the four-wheeler and collided with the man. The shotgun went off and the man went down. Randy ran him over with the four-wheeler followed by the wagon. He looked at Myriah and the kids to make sure none of them had been hit by the shotgun blast. While he was standing up looking back to check on the kids he ran straight into a tree.
The expensive ATV was well built. The shotgun blast had taken out a headlight and damaged the paint but otherwise the machine was still solid. The other headlight had been shattered from the collision with the tree. Randy was in a great place to observe the damage since he’d been thrown out of the four-wheeler into the tree before ending up on the ground right in front of it. Knowing they had to get the hell out of dodge he got back in the seat as fast as he could. Myriah had a bloody nose from the collision but otherwise seemed fine. He took a split second to make sure the littles looked ok before he started going back and forth trying to get the four-wheeler away from the tree he’d ran into.
Kelly jumped back into the four-wheeler behind them and started driving in their direction. He hated that she’d probably jumped out to quietly finish off the guy on the ground. It was necessary but still something he wished he could’ve done for her. It wasn’t like killing a Zombie. They’d just taken out a real uninfected person who was just trying to survive in this new normal, same as them. Maybe the guy should’ve focused more on living in this world and less on trying to hunt down families.
Randy put the dead soldier out of his mind. What was way more important right now was the fact that the guy had gotten off a shot. Normally all that noise would have freaked him out because of Zombies but now he was more worried about the men on dirt bikes who’d be racing their way. He got the ATV and wagon unstuck and started driving away from the tree they’d crashed into. Before he sped up too much, he decided he wanted Myriah to spin around, so she’d be able to shoot at anyone coming up behind them.
“Spin around in the seat and get ready to shoot. If you see a guy on a dirt bike take a shot. The biggest thing I want you to focus on is not accidentally shooting any of your sisters or your mom.”
With those words of encouragement, he started driving as fast as he dared through the orchard again.
Chapter 26: Rain, Rain, Go Away
Krantz was sitting on the passenger side of the truck staring at a map and talking on the radio. Kyler and Rodriguez walked over and waited for him to acknowledge them. Krantz finally looked up at them and nodded.
“You see anything down that way?” He asked.
“There’s a couple of private drives like this one but the main road is completely blocked off up ahead. Once these houses are checked we can cross this road off the list.” Kyler answered.
“That makes sense. There’s going to be a few clearers showing up here to help check out these houses. They’re on the way now actually. Once you get all these houses checked move on up to the next road. I’m trying to keep the search patterns a little random plus talk in person as much as possible. Just in case they have a radio.” Krantz said.
“Roger that sir.” Rodriguez said. They backed up as the truck with Krantz in it reversed and turned around to head for the highway. Rodriguez went and got them a couple of waters out of their truck. They leaned against the tailgate sipping on those until a big black SUV rolled towards them from the highway. When it got close to them it stopped, and the driver’s side door opened.
“Hey I’m Bruce. I’m team lead for the clearers in Ball Ground. Krantz asked us to come up here and help you search this road. We sent the rest of the team up to the next road to start securing the area. Where do you need us?”
“You’ve got six armed men with you right?” Rodriguez asked trying to count the men sitting inside the darkly tinted truck.
“Yes sir.” Bruce answered.
“Ok. Leave a man out here with a radio and a gun. We need him to make sure no one tries to sneak past us to get to the highway. We’re going to check the houses on this drive first then there’s another down the street we need to go look at.” Rodriguez said.
They waited for the men to sort out who was going to stay back and who was going to go with them. They left the selected man standing beside the road with a walki
e and drove the SUV over to the yard of the first home they were searching. The clearers all piled out of the large truck and started moving towards the home.
Rodriguez and Kyler got to the yard after them since they’d walked over. It hadn’t been a long enough walk for them to bother getting in the SUV. Kyler watched as one of the clearers headed towards the open shed and the others headed to check the house. The men moved efficiently. They had their technique down from their experience going in to search and clear houses that were Zombie infested. They beat on some windows to see if anything came charging at them then went ahead and broke open a window to get in. A few minutes later one of the men came out and let Rodriguez know they’d found something.
“This looks fresh, the blood isn’t all dried up yet.” Bruce said pointing at the disgusting mess of a Zombie by the front door that looked like it’d recently had its head beaten in by a very angry person. Bruce stepped over the putrid mess to investigate deeper into the home. The back window had been broken where someone had come through to get in the house. Walking up the stairs they saw someone had looted the former homeowners gun stash. There were guns scattered all over the room. It looked like mostly hunting rifles and .22s.
Zombies! (Book 5): Greater Love Hath No Man Page 23
