by A. L. White
“I can understand why they killed the thing,” Bob said, not wanting giving it the label of ‘child’ because it was no longer a child in his eyes. “How did the mother take that?” he asked.
“She didn’t get much time to think about that now did she? She helped Satan’s spawns here on earth.” Jonas lowered his head in shame. “The Preacher had her crucified! You believe that in modern times, he crucified her and left her on it to die? Not one person, including myself stepped forward and said no, she is alive and one of God’s children. Not one!”
The sounds of the river passing by and of movement in the RV replaced their talking. Jonas went back to his fishing, contemplating the meaning of it all. Why was he alive and his daughter dead? Had she tore someone’s throat out or had she been mercifully put down by someone? He didn’t know and wasn’t sure he wanted to know either way. CHAPTER 10
Lori began making breakfast for everyone while Julie and Virginia helped Jack out of the RV. Having found crutches back at the lab during one of her little adventures with Zeus and Perseus, Virginia pulled them from the bed of the truck when no one was looking and presented them to Jack. The narrow steep stairs of the Winnie were hard to navigate but once outside Jack moved fairly well on flat ground and pavement. As the pain meds wore off and Julie spread the time between getting them further apart, Jack was returning to his old lovable self. The puzzle was returning with a vengeance to the forefront of his brain. They all sat at the picnic table with Jack at the end so he could keep the leg extended and also be nearest to the RV door just in case they had to move him in quickly. The apprehension from Jonas had left when Bob accepted him into the group. They talked and laughed as they ate the last of the fresh eggs. It was a good morning and a good time. One they would relish for a long time to come.
Bob pulled out his map and was looking over all of his carefully circled destinations. He took a black pen and drew a big X through the one near Green Bay and the lab that they had just come from. He was eyeing a few in Minnesota and mentally charting the most direct route there that would avoid big cities.
“I am not so sure that I would go north,” Jonas said reading the map upside down. “Everyone that I have seen so far was going south toward the army bases.”
Bob looked up from the map into everyone’s waiting faces. He was suddenly feeling the weight of responsibility and the icy cold grasp forming around his heart again.
“We are well into November; this odd warmth can’t last forever,” Julie mentioned.
They all nodded their heads at that and returned their eyes to Bob. He was amazed that even the new guy was waiting for him to say something. He shifted his concentration to the southern part of the state.
“There is an airbase down around Effingham I think. We could try to reach it or we could hunker down here.” He surprised himself as much them when he said it, but it made sense to Bob. “Animals that move in herds or packs tend to follow the food. I have an idea that these things will too and if everyone else that survived heads south, we should find a safe defendable place and wait out the winter,” he explained.
“I see your reasoning. Do we know that they will in reality behave like animals?” Jack asked.
“No, no we don’t,” Bob replied. “We also don’t know that they won’t!”
As usual Bob’s simple way of looking at things hid his deeper thoughts on the subject. This was something that he had been mulling over in his mind since the day he was stuck in the truck.
Jonas chipped in from his own experiences; “They do move exactly like a herd, like they all know when the next is going to turn left, right or even stop.”
“It would have to be a place that we could all stay with food and water nearby,” Julie said.
“Finding food and supplies wouldn’t be hard. There are houses full of canned goods and other supplies. I bet we could even find firewood already cut just waiting to be collected,” Virginia added.
Jack felt like he was going to vomit at the thought of entering any building. If he would have been given a choice he wouldn’t have entered into the other lab on his own accord, dying or not.
“I have a spot a little ways south of here out off of some old strip mines,” Bob stated. “I think we can all fit there fairly well if not a little snug.” He waited for anyone to respond and when no one did he continued; “I built it to be a temporary bug out shelter so it doesn’t have all the conveniences of home but it will keep us warm and dry. There is always the RV to use as well.”
“Defendable?” Lori asked.
Bob chuckled more to himself than at her; “It is a bug out place - didn’t your daddy teach you about that while he was prepping?”
Her face blushed and she replied, “Never paid that much attention to that part of him really. He said we had to learn to shoot bows and make arrows so I did.” Pointing toward Virginia she added, “Some better than the rest of us”. Virginia smiled with pride.
“It has four rooms: kitchen, living area, sleeping area and a storeroom. I designed it to fit five comfortably when I built it. As it is now we should be good if not a little on top of each other.” He smiled to them and himself; all that planning was going to be the difference between life and death. He never doubted that one day it would come in handy.
“We can scrounge through a few houses before we go,” Virginia added.
Bob shook his head no softly. “Let’s get there first and get settled in. There should be enough there to keep us for about a week plus what we are carrying with us. Then we can take stock of what we have and what we need.”
Everyone agreed and Virginia looked like she had been scolded. Bob patted her on the head and rustled her hair a little. “There will be plenty of time to explore abandoned houses and shops in the coming months little lady.”
The ride to Bob’s bug out place was shorter than everyone had expected, with the exception of Bob who knew where it was. There were no signs of zombies or people on the way there. It was comforting to not see anyone of the dead persuasion and it added a little to the excitement of having a place to stay put for a while. Even Jack was in good spirits until they turned onto the narrow dirt road that winded its way through a corn field in need of harvesting leading into a somewhat hilly wooded area. The truck and cycle navigated brilliantly while the RV struggled, barely fitting at times and at other times fighting against bogging down in the soft soil.
At the bottom of a steep hill they came to a homemade looking metal gate fastened to a pole on the right side and chained to another on the left. Bob handed Jonas the key and he unlocked and drug the gate open allowing them to pass. After the RV went through Bob had Lori pull over so he could close the gate until he saw Jonas dragging it closed and chaining it. From there it seemed like they drove close to another mile back through deeper woods until they could see a clearing up ahead. There they found the lake or strip mine as Bob had called it and what looked like a shack built into the hill. The sense of dread couldn’t be hidden in the small group. Only Bob knew that what they were seeing was meant to look like that. He wanted anyone who came upon this site to think it was a crappy old shack that hunters and fishermen used occasionally, or perhaps that no one had used it for years. No matter how you looked at it, Bob had succeeded in camouflaging his bug out shelter.
After parking in front of the shack they all climbed out to get a better look at what would be their new home for the next several months. To be honest, most would have turned around if they had anywhere else to go.
“This is it?” Jack asked trying to work the crutches over the broken ground and the tree roots that peeked up for a few feet and then disappeared below the surface.
“Don’t judge a book by its cover my good man,” Bob replied as he unlocked the shack door.
He pulled the spindly made shift door all the way open revealing a metal door with several built-in locks. Bob slapped the metal a few times and said over his shoulder “Six inches thick,” then unlocked the series of locks and pushed it inward to an
open position. Reaching in he flipped a switch and the room was aglow with light.
This had brought a chorus of ahhhhs and smiles from everyone.
“The solar panels are hidden from view unless you are flying above; never quite figured out the best way to camouflage them.” He made a little come on in gesture and continued; “We can’t use them all the time but I guess this once we can splurge a little so you can get a better look.”
Going through the door first, Lori could see that the main room was fairly large. The sleeping quarters were a little smaller than she would have liked but the kitchen area was as large as the main room. Beyond that she really couldn’t see too much. Bob was like a little kid showing off his new toy; this was the first time since they met that she saw him happy. He walked around pointing out the area where firewood was stacked, where the food stores were, the toilet, shower and fresh water tanks. It was truly amazing how big it was once you got to know your way around. The best part was the door and walls. Bob said the walls were about three feet thick and the door barred from the inside with thick steel rods. Lori felt safe for the first time since she and Virginia had left home with Bob after that awful day.
“Once we get everything inside and everyone situated, I can show you a map of the area so no one gets lost,” Bob said as he snapped his fingers for the dogs to come in.
“Everything going to that storage room?” Jonas asked.
“As much as we can fit in there I think. The rest we will lock in the trailer and move it over under the evergreen trees,” Bob replied.
“Care to give me a hand?” Jonas asked Lori with a warm smile.
“Sure,” she replied following him out the door.
They started in the RV; first they brought in the personal belongings and then moved on to the food. Virginia was grabbing anything that she could carry, while Julie inventoried the medical supplies and brought them in. It wasn’t long before they had moved on to the trailer. When the storeroom was nearly full to capacity they asked Bob to point out what he felt was most important to have inside. To Bob, everything was important. He narrowed his list down to anything they could consume or would keep them warm in the coming months. Once the storeroom was so full that the door barely closed and every spare space was filled, Bob explained to them exactly how he wanted the trailer moved under the trees. He wanted easy access to the door and a clear view if anything was nearby. The last thing Bob wanted, he explained, was for anyone to get a surprise going to get supplies from it. Moving the trailer was easier said than done but with everyone’s help that was able they got it moved. Not exactly how Bob had described it but close enough, he agreed.
Dinner and conversation had been short; exhaustion ruled the evening. Lori was asleep the minute her head hit the pillow and Virginia had fallen asleep earlier lying with the dogs in front of the fireplace. Only Bob stayed up for a while before falling off to sleep in his old recliner.
CHAPTER 11
It wasn’t until the second week at the bunker when it seemed to Lori that everyone was settled in. It took a little bit of effort to get along now that there wasn’t any threat of death hiding behind the next corner. Feeling safe had come from being behind three feet of concrete and stone wall capped off by six inches of steel door. There had been no sign of zombies or zombie two–point–zeros for some time now. If not for the fresh game that Virginia and Jonas brought home every day, they wouldn’t have seen anything dead at all. You could say it was as normal as normal could be in spite of the apocalypse surrounding them. They did their chores during the day and entertained themselves during the evening. Jack and Julie poured over the data taken from the lab on thumb drives while the rest watched one of Bob’s old DVD’s if the solar panels had charged the batteries. Otherwise they took turns reading to each other.
The Illinois December temperatures were becoming a problem. Inside they were warm and toasty but outside was not contusive. The lack of cold weather clothing proved to be challenging. With the temperatures beginning to hover around twenty degrees Fahrenheit no one could be outside for extended lengths of time. It was decided that a trip into Wilmington would be needed to find warmer clothing. Bob had decided that the two best suited for this trip would be Lori and Jonas. Both were in good enough shape to deal with the colder temps and Bob felt they could handle anything that came up. Virginia was less than thrilled about being left behind but Bob had a way of smoothing things over with her that amazed Lori.
After eating a full breakfast Lori and Jonas set out for town. Lori had been mildly bothered by Jonas deciding that he was driving without discussion but it had passed by the time they were passing through the gate. Seeing how muddy the dirt road was helped that along quite a bit. Both rode in silence past the leafless trees and bushes. Everything looked so different then when first driving through here. Lori said nothing; perhaps it had looked like this and she had been concentrating on not getting stuck. They reached the end and they both saw something out of place.
Pointing across the paved road at a blue compact car, “That wasn’t there when we came in,” Jonas said.
“Neither was that one,” Lori said pointing in the direction they needed to go. A minivan was stopped in the middle of the lane with the doors wide open.
Jonas clicked the automatic door lock, locking both doors and reached for the pistol laying on the bench seat between them. He took the safety off and verified that a round was in the chamber before swinging the truck left onto the road. Creeping slowly past the car and van looking for signs of any movement and satisfied that there was none, they moved on toward downtown. Once on Main Street Lori had pointed to a resale shop three buildings down. They pulled up in front of the door and watched for signs of movement again.
“I don’t see anything in there,” Lori said.
“I don’t see anything either. Let’s see if it’s open. Be careful,” Jonas replied.
Leaving the keys in the truck in case they needed to exit hastily Jonas got out first, looked all around one more time for movement and then nodded to Lori that it was okay.
They met in front of the glass doors to the resale shop and Lori reached for the handle. She had been expecting it to be locked but it wasn’t. Without waiting she raised her crossbow up and entered the shop. It wasn’t a large shop and most of the clothing racks were short enough that Lori could see over the tops of them. She went straight to a rack that had winter coats on it and started pulling off as many as she could. Unfortunately the bulk of the coats were women’s coats but she found a few that would fit Jonas and Jack. Bob had lost weight since she first met him but he was going to be a challenge. The thought had never occurred to her that Jonas might want to look for his own coat until he came out from the back storeroom and said, “All clear back here.”
Lori smiled at him and handed him the coats so he could put them into the truck. There weren’t any blankets to be found here but there were a lot of empty houses to find them in. Lori grabbed clothes and shoes that she thought might possibly work for some of the group and went out to the truck. Finding herself alone she started to get worried. Then Jonas came out of the bar two doors down with a box of booze. He smiled at her and put it into the back of the truck.
“Over there by the gas station is a Mini-Mart. Maybe they have some canned goods left,” Jonas said as he started walking down the street.
“Shouldn’t we take the truck?”
“Nah, we are quieter on foot and I don’t think there is anything here to worry about.” He winked at her. “I stayed here for a few days before I met you guys; never saw anything until I saw you guys.”
Lori wasn’t so sure about leaving the truck but she did trust Jonas so she went along quietly. The Mini-Mart had been ransacked and picked clean so they moved on to the next building where they found blankets and a few extra-large coats for Bob. Everything was going better than Lori could have hoped for - not a sign of anyone or anything. It was like being in the world’s largest mall and everything was fr
ee for the taking. She had even found a few newer DVD’s and games for the long evenings ahead.
They loaded everything into the extended cab of the truck and moved up the road, stopping in front of a three-story building that said “Wilmington Retirement Village, Assisted and Non-Assisted Living”.
The sense of caution that was prevalent earlier was gone now. Feeling how at ease Jonas was now, Lori had let her guard down as well. On the first floor they found the offices of the administrators, a meeting hall and the cafeteria. All were empty including the kitchen food pantries. On the second floor they found more clothing and bedding along with some minor food supplies. Bob had asked for any type of reading supplies so Lori gathered up “old people” magazines for him to read. When her hands were full she let Jonas know that she was taking them out to the truck. He handed her a large hospital bag he had found to put them in. Lori gladly took the bag depositing Bob’s reading materials in it and left for the truck. The elevators weren’t working so she took the stairs marveling at the view of the river.
On her way back inside the silence was disturbed by the crack of gun shots echoing through the building. Lori pulled the crossbow from where it had been hanging from a strap over her shoulder and ran toward where Jonas had been.
Reaching the second floor she called out to him but there was no reply. Cautiously she moved down the hall checking each room as she passed by. She called out to Jonas again but still no reply came. Moving further she could hear movement in the last room off to the right. Focusing all of her attention on the doorway she moved a little quicker.
“Jonas are you in there?” she called out again, stopping to hear if he replied.
“Get out of here! Go back to the truck and leave now!” came the reply in a labored voice.
Lori turned the corner and burst into the room ready to fire her arrow off at any target that presented itself. There on the floor was Jonas bleeding from his neck and arm, to his right was a zombie lying motionless.
