by Gallier, TW
They looked toward the water tower a long second, and then nodded. No argument, which was amazing considering we argued every point before the shit hit the fan.
I drove the four-wheeler. Ralph followed us down, across some pastures, and finally up the hill to the water tower. There was a ten foot cyclone fence around it, with barbed wire on top of that. The gate was still locked, but the fence along the street was pulled down. My guess was zombies did to get at people hiding in there. We parked the ATVs in back, away from the street.
"We start out with machetes. If it gets too hairy, then we'll start shooting," I said. "We hightail it back here as soon as we fire a weapon."
I took the M16, while Olivia slung the sawed off shotgun over her shoulder. Ralph had his M16/M203. I noticed Ralph also grabbed the crowbar.
The residential part of town encircled downtown, and was mostly on the two hills. Main Street was the county road that passed through town. There were a few other hardtops going out to various farms and such. That county road came from the highway and was going southwest.
Our homes were on the other hill. Ralph lived across the street from me growing up. Olivia lived two streets over and closer to downtown.
"Shhh," Ralph said, dropping to one knee.
We followed his lead. I saw the zombies a second later. Two males coming up the middle of the street from town. Looking for people to eat. We remained hidden, watching them pass. Then I motioned for them to follow me. I led them around the fence and to the road. Olivia turned right toward to the town, to act as lookout. Ralph and I went after the two walkers.
I snuck up to them as quietly as I could, machete held high and ready. I was on the left. They started to turn around before we closed with them.
"Die," I whispered harshly, rushing forward.
Ralph and I swung at the same time. Our machetes bit deep in their necks. I severed the spine before burying my weapon deep in his shoulder. Ralph took the other's head off with one swing. It took me a few minutes to work my blade out of the dead zombie.
"You should know better by now."
"I didn't want to interfere with your swing."
He wasn't buying it. The smug look on his face both irritated and amused me. After cleaning our machetes on the zombies' clothing, we rejoined Olivia.
"I can see my house from here," she said. "We should go there first."
Only a tiny part of the roof was visible, but it seemed like a no-brainer. After I nodded, she led the way down the street. We hugged the houses as much as we could. Most had shrubbery we could hide in if needed.
"We have to be more careful until we get to the other side," I said. "Leap frog time."
I started out, running across the street to the next house. We all waited a moment to make sure I wasn't spotted. After I checked the area, I waved Olivia up. She raced past me to the next house. Ralph was waved up once she saw it was safe. When I was waved up, I reached the main street.
There was a single zombie walking away from my location. I waved Olivia up. Just before she reached me and ran across the street, two more zombies exited the barber shop at the other end of downtown. I threw my hand up for her to stop.
She almost couldn't stop in time. There was enough noise to attract the zombies. Both of them turned our way. I grabbed Olivia's hand and headed to the back of the building. We crouched next to the wall behind that store and listened to a pair of footsteps approaching.
I heard her suck in a breath, and I did so as well.
We leapt at them. It was the first time a zombie showed any sign of being surprised or afraid. Both whirled on us, dropping back a few steps. Our machete's came down and thunked deeply into their heads. Both heads were split in two, which did the job.
"Quickly. Drag them into the store."
Ralph joined us, and he opened the back door while Olivia and I dragged our victims into the building. We closed and locked the door just in the nick of time. Five zombies came rushing up that street, looking all around.
"Did we make that much noise?" Olivia whispered.
"No. Remember, they have that mental link," I replied. One of the zombies tried the door, then pounded on it. I thought they knew we were in there, but he stopped and went to the next store down and tried that door. "That was close."
Moving to the front, discovering what used to be Taylor's General Store was turned into a café sometime after we moved to Carson. We peeked out the windows. All of the windows were smashed out in the store across the street. Our café's front door was wide open. So I ran across the street and into the other store. It was a dress shop. After a quick check didn't find any zombies, I waved Olivia, and then Ralph over.
"Be quiet," Ralph said. "I heard the zombies coming back."
I didn't want to stay in that store. If they still thought there were living people around they might start checking all of the stores again. Who knew how zombie minds worked? All I knew was they were easily distracted.
"What's that noise?" Ralph asked.
My heart skipped a beat. I thought he heard a zombie in our store. Holding my breath, I listened intently. Nothing inside the store, but there was a low rumble outside. My first thought was distant thunder that didn't stop.
"Motorcycles," Olivia whispered.
"Harley-Davidsons," Ralph said. "A lot of them."
I looked at them, cold fear gripping my heart. "Uh-oh. Road warriors."
Chapter 19
The gunfire started before they reached downtown Plano. We hide deep in the shadows of the shop and stared at the front windows. Zombies hurried past in the direction of the incoming bikers.
Gunfire intensified for a few minutes, then petered off. The rolling thunder of the Harleys continued coming closer and closer.
"Have they killed all of the zombies already?" Ralph asked.
I shrugged. It was possible, but all of the noise they made would just attract more.
"They're here," Olivia said.
The first bikers rolled into downtown and past our shop's window. The first dozen or so looked like outlaw bikers, but then some pickups passed by, one of them with a M60 mounted in the bed. There were more Harleys, some ATVs, a few more pickups, and even two large U-Haul trucks. The most surprising vehicle was a Class A camper with armed men atop it.
"I counted two M60s and a .50 Cal mounted on the back of pickups," Ralph said.
That was a lot of firepower.
"What do you think the chances are they'd let us join their group?" Ralph asked.
"Well, I'm pretty sure they'd let me join," Olivia said, grinning.
"Yeah," I said. "But they'd just shoot me and Ralph."
"Sucks being a guy in the zombie apocalypse," she said.
"You wouldn't enjoy it," I said. "So get it out of your feeble little brain."
Olivia looked shocked. "Feeble brained? I have the highest IQ of the three of us."
"Said who?" Ralph said. "My IQ score was the highest ever in our high school."
"Which IQ test?" she countered.
"That doesn't matter."
"It matters," she snapped. "I took the – "
"Shut up. Listen," I said, holding up a hand. The rumble was beginning to quiet down, and then I saw the last bikers in their long line turn into parking spaces in front of our shop. They weren't just passing through. "Argument over. Seven foot monster bikers trump all IQ scores. Let's get out of here before they come exploring."
Men were shouting out on the street. I heard women, too. Everyone sounded relaxed, happy. The bikers in front of our shop looked big and scary, and anything but happy to me.
"Of course the biggest, meanest bastards in the civilized world would be the ones to thrive in a post apocalypse world," Ralph muttered unhappily.
"Come on," Olivia said, leading the way toward the back door. "My house is closest."
We did the leap frog thing from the shop's back door to the next street over, and halfway down it. That was Olivia's street. Congress Street. It was one of the
most established streets in Plano. Her father owned the combination hardware store and lumber yard at the other end of town and a block past the old downtown.
All of the houses on that street were old Victorians and Colonials. Olivia's house was one of the smaller Victorians, but still larger than mine or Ralph's. She looked upon it with a grim face. The front door was busted off and most of the ground floor windows were smashed. We eased up onto the front porch, paused to look up and down the street again, before entering.
"Oh god," she whispered, freezing just inside the door. I came up from behind and hugged her as she looked around with a shaking head. Everything was upturned or broken. The place had been looted, and probably more than once. "Please god, let them be safe."
There was one odd thing, though. "What was nailed to the wall?"
There were bits of paper on four nails. I remembered that wall held lots of family pictures before, but they were all missing. Four 16 penny nails were used to put on a large square of paper. The corners were still nailed to the wall.
"A map," Ralph said, picking up a wadded piece of paper. He spread it open, revealing a state map with all four corners torn off. Someone had written on it with a bright red marker. "Holy crap."
"What?" both Olivia and I asked.
He held it up for us to see. "It was left for you, Olivia. It shows were everyone in town went."
We rushed over to him. Ralph and I held the map pressed to the wall, while we examined it. A small town west of Plano was circled called Indian Village. I remembered passing through it once. It was atop a hill in the middle of wide open farmlands. In my fantasy reading youth I imagined it as a perfect place for a castle. A creek circled around about two-thirds of the hill, which I thought of as a moat.
I could see Indian Village being an easy place to fortify and defend.
"Olivia," she read. "We are being overrun by the infected. Everyone is going to the more defensible town marked on the map. Find us there. Be safe. Love, Dad."
She started crying. It was real hard to keep the tears at bay for me, too.
"They left ham radio settings to reach them," Ralph said. "If we only had a radio."
"Was your father a ham radio operator?" I asked.
"No. My Uncle Dave was into that," she said. Olivia quickly folded the map and stuffed it into her back pocket. "Let's go!"
Olivia was ready to head out right then. I wanted to go find my family, too, but Ralph and I wanted to check out our homes first.
The biker road warriors were making a lot of noise by the time we stepped out of the house. Almost sounded like they were having a party. Maybe they were. The world seemed to belong to them and their ilk.
We cut through yards, heading south. Aside from the party downtown, the town was eerily quiet. There wasn't even a dog barking. We passed out of the older streets and reached the newer part of town. By newer I mean the houses were brick homes built after 1960, mostly with central air and heat and attached garages. Our family home was a two-story, four bedroom brick built in 1971. Ralph's house was a single story ranch about the same age.
"Damn, I was hoping I was wrong," Ralph said, looking dejected. "But my house is burnt down."
Five houses in all were burnt to the ground, including the houses to either side of Ralph's and two behind them. Even Ralph's wooden privacy fence was nothing but ashes. He stood in the middle of the blackened ruins and looked around.
"ATVs!" I cried, hearing several racing down the side streets on our side of town. "Get inside my house now!"
The front door was locked. I pounded on it a second, before we rushed around back. And just in time. Seconds later two women on ATVs raced past, before turning back toward downtown.
"What's the matter with them?" I asked. "Are they crazy or something?"
"Do you find it weird that Hollywood got it right?" Olivia said. "They predicted road warriors in a post apocalyptic world."
"The road warrior lifestyle is not sustainable," I said. "It's completely dependent on gasoline and ammo. Both of which are in short supply right now."
"You're such a romantic, Kyle," Ralph taunted.
"Road warriors aren't romantic," I countered. "Star Wars was romantic. Leia, Luke, and Han battling the universe."
"Ewww, Leia and Luke were brother and sister, and they kissed," Olivia replied. "So sick."
"You mean funny," Ralph said. "Dude, you kissed your twin sister. Ack!"
We laughed. It felt good.
"Ah, intergalactic incest. Good times," Olivia said. She pulled the crowbar out from under Ralph's belt. "Keep look out. I'll jimmy the door open. I don't like being out in the open."
We popped it open easily enough. My childhood home was intact, though looked pretty messy. The cupboards were cleaned out. So we went upstairs to my old room.
"I can get a change of underwear," I said, going to my chest of drawers.
"Give me some," Olivia asked.
Ralph wanted a few extra pairs, too. I paused, wondering how our main concern was clean underwear. Just changing underwear made me feel cleaner for some reason. We even found clean socks. None of us wanted to give up our camo, despite how dirty it had become.
"We can stay in here until dark," I said. "Maybe wait for the bikers to go to sleep before heading back to our ATVs."
"Oh no," Ralph said, looking out the window.
My bedroom was in front, so the town spread out before us. The house was at the top of the hill, too. We could see pretty well to the other hilltop, though big hardwoods obstructed most of the view.
Olivia and I hurried to the window. He didn't have to say a word. We figured the problem out. The bikers were on the next street over, going through all of the houses. There were a lot of them, too.
Chapter 20
"Out the back door," I cried, ushering them out before me. "Hurry. We'll go south to Baker Street, and then turn to the east."
We'd have to make a wide circle around the town.
"What if they find our ATVs before we reach them?" Olivia asked.
"Don't even think like that."
The very thought stressed me out beyond belief. I turned to look out the window again. From what I could see, the bikers were all moving down the streets from west to east. So that changed my plans.
I ran past them down in the family room to pass out the door first. We quickly climbed over the back fence and into the Garza's backyard. No alley separated us. Their yard wasn't fenced, so we hurried onto the street. The next street over was Baker.
"We're going west instead," I said. "From here on we leap frog around to the ATVs."
I went first, running to the end of the next house before dropping to a knee. Olivia raced past me on my signal. She stopped at the other end of the next house and waved Ralph forward. And that's how we continued down Baker, which ended at 4th Street.
1st Street was the first cross street on the east side of town. Then came 2nd street which crossed Main Street on the edge of downtown, and ended just past the water tower. 3rd Street bisected downtown, and 4th Street was the cross street all of the residential streets dead-ended into on the westernmost side of downtown.
"Listen. We have to really run fast when we cross the end of these streets," I said. "If they spot us…"
"We know," Ralph said.
Ralph took off running up 4th. He stopped to peek around the corner, then waved me forward. I ran with everything I had past him and across White Street. As soon as I was behind the next house, I stopped and peeked back around to look up White. Ralph waved Olivia across.
I'd never seen her run so fast. She streaked past Ralph, and across the street. Two women and a man came out of one of the houses when she was about halfway across. My heart skipped a beat and I couldn't breathe. She made it past me before any of them looked our way, though one of the women did a double-take. Then they moved to the next house down.
I waited until the sound of them kicking in the door ended, and then waved Ralph over.
"That was close," Ralph said, panting.
"What was close?" Olivia asked.
"You were almost spotted," I said. "Come on."
We made it to Congress Street without incident. Olivia looked longingly down at her childhood home. Then she looked to the west. The top of her family's business could just be seen over the roof of the Franklin's house.
"Maybe someday we can come back," I said. "The zombies can't live forever, right?"
"We can only hope," she said. She wiped tears away, took a deep breath, and nodded. "What are we waiting for?"
"Got some strangers!" a man shouted.
We looked up to see a big blonde biker pointing a pistol at us. All three of use opened up on him. Olivia hit him with both barrels. He was dead before he hit the ground.
All hell broke loose downtown.
"Follow me," I said, and ran toward downtown, only to cut right into the alley behind the shops. Olivia followed close behind, while reloading her weapon, with Ralph falling back to keep an eye on our rear.
"Keep up, Ralph!"
As we closed on 3rd street, I noticed men and women running up it toward the downtown. They started shooting at us. At the same time more men came around the corner from downtown. I opened up on the big ass bikers from downtown, while Olivia shot at the others coming from the south. Ralph was firing back down the alley at more of the road warrior bikers.
Crossing 3rd Street, we continued up the alley. We ran with all we had. A painful stitch developed in my right side, but to stop was to die. More men and women were pouring into the alley behind us, and I heard ATVs, motorcycles, and pickups starting. They were coming at us with all they had.
I didn't even slow down when I rounded the corner northward toward the water tower. 2nd Street was clear, but I could hear vehicles coming back down Main. I turned my M16 to the left and opened up with full auto as I ran across Main. I was empty before I reached the other side. And before I could fish out another magazine and reload, a large mean looking woman jumped out in front of me.
