America The Dead (Book 2): The Road To Somewhere

by Lindsey Rivers

  “There was a National Guard base. About twenty of these things just sitting there,” Jeff explained.

  “We were right next to a big military base and never even thought to check it out,” Mike said. “Drove by that base all the time. Saw them. Most of them were like yours, the H-1, version, but I know there are other versions that aren't military. The H1 and the H2 both,” Mike said.

  “And three and four,” Bob added. “But the three and four versions are not really military trucks, not really even off road trucks. But they are really good off road vehicles, and what about all those Jeeps? One of those new four door models. I should have thought that, and I didn't,” Bob said.

  “Well, next time we need a new vehicle we'll look in that direction,” Mike said. “But the ones you guys are building are probably going to be damn hard to beat when you're done with them.”

  There were a few of them sitting around talking. The rest of the camp had drifted off to begin the projects they had planned to do the day before. Lilly had taken all five of the children to the toy store to keep them occupied. Jessica went with her.

  Molly, Tom, Tim and Annie left to go to the garage, and it looked to Mike like Bob was looking for an excuse to get his hands greased up again. It was probably why, Mike thought, Bob came up with an excuse to leave a few moments later.

  “Well, Jeff,” Bob said extending his hand. “It was good to get to talk to you, but if I don't get over to the garage there's no telling what those kids will build... or take apart,” he finished with a laugh.

  “It was good to meet you, Bob,” Jeff said. They shook hands goodbye, and that left Patty, Ronnie, Kate and Mike as well as Jeff, Sharon, David and Arlene.

  “So,” Mike said in the silence that fell, “have you guys thought about how far you might actually go? I mean, all the way to California or just west?”

  “Well, when I said west, it's more southwest we were thinking. Texas, Mexico, maybe even South America,” Jeff said.

  Mike nodded.

  “Bob and his wife Janet, and maybe a few others, are going to go back to the land. They're looking for a place. Wilderness, or close to it,” Kate said, “To settle down.”

  “We discussed that, but we don't know just yet,” Jeff said.

  “It would have my vote,” Sharon said.

  “Mine also,” Arlene said. “We've only been traveling a week, and I'm already sick of it.”

  “Maybe we're closer to a decision than I thought we were,” Jeff said sheepishly. “All of you looking at doing that?” he asked.

  Mike looked at Kate; Kate looked at Patty and Ronnie and then back to Mike.

  “It's on the table,” Mike said. “We talked it over early on, but no one fully decided. Bob and Janet, they have an idea of rebuilding the Indian Nation. That is a different thing than deciding to live in the wilderness, I think they have a specific place picked out, the forever wild area up around Kentucky, Tennessee. Extends into Alabama. Huge.”

  Jeff nodded. “I think I heard about that somewhere. Read about it, maybe in school.”

  Mike nodded. “It almost sounds like anti-technology talk. Maybe no rifles. That's what I got from what they said early on. But, I think that has changed. I think they've revised things a little. Anyway, it's there on the table.” He looked at Kate. “I guess for me personally, and I mean me, nobody else, it depends on what my woman wants to do. If she wanted to go, I would. I mean, we're all going to live somewhere. There really aren't any cities left. If there are, they're unsafe, or worse from what we've seen,” Mike said.

  Kate smiled at him. “We met some real crazies back in Watertown,” she said. “This has brought out the worst in some people.”

  “I told Mike last night we've had a rough time ourselves. We've taken to avoiding towns, cities. Starting something over again in the middle of nowhere don't sound so bad compared to what we've seen,” he said softly.

  He paused for a moment and a pained look crossed his face. “The little ones, the older woman... we found them abandoned on the outskirts of a little city up north a little further, and the people we're refusing to feed them. Too old... Too young... Worthless they told them. That shocked me. But she told us later that they had been toying with the idea of killing them out right.” Jeff nodded at the face Kate made. “And the women they had with them they treated like possessions.” He shrugged, “We took them with us. I couldn't believe it. I couldn't leave them.”

  “It was the same back where we came up. They were about to try to take us,” Patty said. “We spoiled their plans I think.”

  Jeff nodded. “Maybe I'll talk to Bob and his woman a little more later on,” he said. “See exactly what they have in mind.”

  “I think he'd like the opportunity, and to be honest, I'd like to hear what he has to say too, where they've gone with their thinking.”

  “We've got the little ones. Traveling isn't exactly the kind of life they need,” Jeff added.

  “Well, we've got a ways to go anyway before we hit southern climates. So we've got to travel some,” Mike said. “There's time to make our decisions.”

  “I think most of us want someplace safe. That's all, just safe,” Kate said.

  “Safe sounds good,” Arlene agreed. She squeezed David's hand, and he pulled her closer to him.

  “I can get behind that,” Ronnie said. “I grew up in the city. I thought that was bad, but what we just went through in Watertown? Those people were crazy... still are crazy, I guess. It's like the way the city was, but if you took off all the controls. No cops, nobody to stop you at all. Makes me wonder what things are going to be like in a few years. I want Patty and our children to have something safer. Sometimes I think Bob's idea isn't all that bad,” he paused and scuffed one booted foot at the ground before continuing.

  “I don't know about leaving all the the technology behind, that seems a waste. Not all of it was bad. What do we really have left? Cars and trucks? High powered weapons? I guess it's all still out there somewhere. But the vehicles, the weapons will all rust away, fall apart, then what? We'll run out of bullets someday. Does anyone know how to make bullets, where to get the stuff to make gunpowder with? I don't, that's for sure. And so what little we have that we're using will pass away on its own. Maybe, in another twenty thousand years or so, we'll all be living in caves throwing spears at our food. I read something about that once. The world goes just so far, something happens and it falls apart. Society devolves, then the whole thing starts all over again from nothing,” he shrugged, seeming uncomfortable.

  “You know, I never heard you say that much at one time before, Ronnie,” Mike said laughing.

  Ronnie nodded. “I don't, not usually, but I guess I've been thinking as well, Mike. I have Patty to think of. We have each other to think of. In the old world, well, I was OK with letting shit go by... slide. I had an attitude of whatever I think or want won't make a difference so why bother? But now, that's all changed. We're the ones building our own world. We can do it right. Not like those guys back in Watertown,” Ronnie finished.

  “I agree. And I like the way that you put it, Ronnie,” Kate said.

  “Yeah, it really is that way,” David agreed.

  “I care about what Mike wants. I, we, want to have children. We want them to be safe. Mike and I haven't really talked about it, but I'll bet that all of us will be talking about it tonight,” Kate finished.

  ~

  The morning crept by, and eventually Ronnie, Patty, and Kate said their goodbyes and left to take care of their own responsibilities. David and Arlene went with them. They all headed for one of the chain stores.

  Mike, Jeff and Sharon wound up checking over a large map of the Eastern United States that Mike had been carrying with him. It extended to about the middle of the country. The red line of a grease pencil ran roughly along, following major routes and ending in Mobile Alabama.

  “Why Mobile?” Jeff asked.

  “Ronnie's people are from there. He lived there as a kid unt
il his parents died, then he came up here to live and ended up in the city, New York, living with an Aunt. From there he went up to Watertown to work and stayed. But, he remembers the gulf coast as a kid. A little town called Pritchard. He wants to see how it is, whether any of his people are still there. It's south, that's where we're going. About as south as you can get, and we'll have someone that knows the area when we get there,” Mike explained.

  “Got the same thing,” Jeff said. “Arlene comes from Texas, spent time in Arizona, and got around in Mexico quite a bit as well.”

  They all stood from the map and Jeff looked over at the Auto store. “Think they got tires to fit my trucks?” he asked.

  “I wouldn't doubt it,” Mike said. He looked over at the Hummers.

  “Oh, they look okay,” Jeff said. “It's dry rot. All cracked and split from sitting around. If you wouldn't mind us being here a while, maybe we can change those tires out. I've been more than a little worried about them,” Jeff finished.

  “You're welcome as long as you'd like to stay, and I'm sure that comes from everyone. Let's go see what they got,” Mike said. He and Jeff walked over to the auto garage.

  ~

  By late afternoon they had swapped out tires on one of the hummers and started on a second one. Tim and Annie, who had gotten pretty good at changing tires with only tire irons, had done the first few tires to show Jeff how it was done, then left him to it.

  Molly was still working alongside Tom and Bob. Between the three of them, they had finished the third Suburban, complete with tube bumpers, top racks and rock slider side steps, along with larger, wider tires and the heavy duty suspension parts they had used for the other trucks.

  They had also installed two winches on this one, front and back.

  “We'll use it to pull out any of the other trucks that get stuck, whether in front of or behind us,” Bob said.

  They had wandered over to look over the Hummers, and Tom had gone with Jeff to show him where the tires were stored. Jeff had found the tires he had wanted immediately, and Tom had helped him to get them back to the garage.

  Mike had left to locate Kate and the others. He'd finally found them, over their heads in boxes, in a large storage building attached to the rear of one of the chain stores.

  “Looking for flour,” Kate told him. She turned and pointed at three large boxes resting on the concrete floor. Those are one pound bags boxed and untouched. All the twenty five pound bags we found are wet or eaten into, or both.” She shrugged, leaned towards him and gave him a quick kiss. He looked injured.

  “Baby,” she said. He looked around. They were momentarily hidden in the stacks. He pulled her to him and kissed her harder.

  “Bad, Mike,” Kate said, pulling him closer to return the kiss.

  “You guys,” Patty said coming around the corner of a stack of boxes. She smiled though.

  Kate giggled and Mike rolled his eyes. “Okay... flour,” he said and began looking in earnest.

  ~

  An hour more of searching located two more boxes of the one pound bags, a palette of twenty five pound bags full of rat burrowed holes, and several cases of peanut butter.

  David and Ronnie had loaded up two large rolling carts, and they were all helping to pull them out through the main store and into the parking lot. The peanut butter, the salvageable flour, several cases of vegetables and canned meats, several different kinds of energy bars, along with dozens of cases of sports drinks filled the carts.

  “No bottled water at all,” Patty said.

  “I know,” Kate said. “And we have a lot, but it's not like we can turn a tap and get more.”

  Everyone murmured agreement or nodded their heads. There were cases upon cases of sports drinks and vitamin water, and they had taken several cases of those, but they found no bottled water at all. As they were pulling the carts back, they ran into the men from the garage coming back from a stream that ran behind the garage area back along the wood line.

  The water was ice cold, but everyone liked to stay clean, and it was amazing, Mike thought, what you could get used to when there was no alternative.

  “I do miss hot showers,” Bob said. “I think a new Nation will have to find a way to do hot showers.” Everybody laughed.

  “I'll be up later,” Kate told Mike. She'd simply picked up new clothes while they were in the store, as had Patty and Arlene.

  As they headed down towards the wood line, Annie, who had stayed behind to help Tim pick up the garage, called out to them to wait for her. She caught up and joined them walking down the trail to the small stream.

  The men had picked up their own clothes and headed to a spot around a small bend in the stream, out of sight of the women.

  ~

  Lilly and Jessica had cleaned up a few more of the motel rooms, including a double with adjoining doors to keep the children together. They had heated water and bathed the children in one of the bathtubs. Getting the water up from the stream had seemed as though it would be the hardest part, but Tim and Annie, testing out one of the lifted Suburbans, had taken them down with several large water containers, helped them fill them, then drove them back up in style.

  The kids loved riding in the Suburban. It was just another game to play.

  They had not even given them too hard a time about taking a bath. Jessica took over watching the freshly scrubbed children while Lilly left to go down to the creek to get herself cleaned up.

  Sandy and Susan were coming up the path as Lilly was going down.

  “Cold?” she asked. The day had warmed up. She was hopeful.

  “Jesus, is it ever,” Susan answered through chattering teeth.

  “Oh well,” Lilly said.

  “We need to get one of these Brainiacs to figure out how to get us hot water,” Sandy said. “I may never warm up again.”

  “Oh, I doubt that,” Susan said dead pan.

  Lilly laughed and headed down the trail, leaving the two of them walking slowly, arm in arm, up the trail.

  When she arrived, Molly, Annie, Arlene and Sharon, along with Kate and Patty were already there.

  “I heard it's really cold,” Lilly said to no one in particular.

  “It really, really, really is,” Arlene said. She was standing in the stream, water up to her waist, shivering.

  Kate dove under the water, bobbed up in the middle of the stream and swam downstream. “It's not bad. Keep moving,” she called back, “Keeps you warm!”

  Lilly peeled her clothes quickly and looked doubtfully at the water, “Okay, if you say so, here goes!” She ran into the water and dove under. She surfaced next to Kate.

  “It's so cold. You lied,” she laughed. She splashed Kate who giggled and splashed her back. A few seconds later everyone was involved in the water fight.

  “Now that warmed me right up,” Arlene said a few minutes later as the water fight came to a close.

  “Yeah, me also,” Lilly said. She was out of the water on the grassy bank drying herself off and getting dressed.

  Kate sat close by with Patty. The two of them working to brush each others hair out.

  A few minutes later, Janet Dove came down, “I Thought I'd better get down here while I had the chance. Dinner's going. I have a little time to myself,” she said.

  “I can't believe how well you run stuff,” Patty told her.

  “Yeah, for real,” Lilly said. “You so much have it together. I wish I did,” she said.

  Janet looked embarrassed. “Oh, it's just helping out. If I didn't do it, somebody would,” she said.

  “That's true,” Kate said, “but I doubt they'd do it anywhere near as well as you do.”

  Janet blushed again. “Thank you, Katie,” she said.

  Lilly smiled. Janet Dove was about the only person she knew of who could call Kate Katie. She meant to ask her why that was someday, but she was pretty sure she already knew why. Janet was like everybody's mother. She was the ultimate nurturer. And a mother could get away with things no one
else ever could.

  A few of the women were still in the water. They all waited for each other and left as a group.

  ~

  Mike sat on the sun warmed rock and looked out over the water. Jeff came and sat down next to him.

  “You have things running pretty smoothly,” Jeff told him.

  Mike laughed. “Not me. I don't lead... not really.”

  Jeff raised his eyebrows. “Maybe you don't realize it, but you do.”

  Mike sighed. “Yeah... Okay, I guess I do. Not a job I asked for though. I hate to say it out like that. Makes me responsible.” He laughed. “Guess I'm responsible anyway though.”

  Jeff nodded. “I found myself in the same situation” He looked out over the water for a few moments. “Listen, I wanted to talk to you.”

  Mike turned from the water. “Sounds serious.” His eyes focused on Jeff's own.

  “It sort of is... it is. Hell, I just don't know.” His eyes came up and focused on Mike. “Have you had any problems with the dead? I mean people who are supposed to be dead?”

  Mike looked at him for a few seconds, thinking he must have missed some other part to the conversation, or possibly heard him wrong. “Uh... I have to say, Jeff, you lost me.”

  Jeff sighed. “Yeah... Okay... This will sound like bullshit, or crazy.” He took a deep breath. “Okay, so we're going through this small town. What it was is, I came upon this body. Well, it seemed to be a body.” He shook his head. “No... Look. I came upon this body. It was a body. No doubt at all. And then the goddamn thing got up and took off. Scared the shit out of me. Okay, I know that sounds crazy. But, well, I wondered if you might have come across anything like that at all?” He ended with a look of grim determination in his eyes.

  “Okay. So... Uh, you … Okay, so really you mean like a... a...”

  “A zombie,” Jeff said. “I know how that sounds, and I would guess that means you haven't had any problems... experiences like that.”

  Mike shook his head. “I... No. I haven't. None of us have. I don't want to sound like an ass, but you're serious?”

  “I'm serious. Look, I'm not an over reactor. This woman was dead. I didn't think so at first, but afterward I realized she had to have been dead. No doubt at all. I saw all that Un-Dead stuff on TV in the old world. I didn't buy any of it at all. But this... This was different. I actually saw this with my own two eyes.”