by White, A. L.
Bob noticed were tears streaming down his face, but he continued on as calmly as he could. “Well, my family showed up about two days later—what was left of them. My little girl, Annabelle, saw them first and went running toward her grandma. From a distance she looked like my mom. She had fairly bad arthritis, so she moved around kind of badly to begin with. Moved kind of like the dead do, you see. No way of telling really, not until you got close enough to smell her and get a good look.” Jonas’ tears were streaming steadily down his cheeks. “I know she was dead now; you see. but that doesn’t change the vision in my head of my own mother biting the neck of my daughter. My wife was next, she ran blindly to our little girl’s aid. By that time there were more of them and she was covered in an eating frenzy I guess.”
Bob started to say something reassuring then stopped himself. What could he possibly say that would make a difference? He knew, had her been through that, there was nothing that could be said.
“I got in the car and drove out of there as fast as I could, never looking back until I ran out of gas. Found this motorcycle and rode it the rest of the way to the camp. I expected to find the army, police, just about anything there. But all I found were dead. I got back on the bike and rode west. Must have went three or four days only stopping to get whatever little bits of food I could find when I needed to find gas.”
“The Preacher?” Bob asked.
“I don’t remember where I ran into him, doesn’t matter. He had about a dozen or so followers then and they were the only people I had seen that were alive. You overlook a lot about a person if they aren’t trying to eat you, you know?”
Bob shook his head yes, he could see that making sense these days.
“Anyway, he was setting out to kill anything moving that wasn’t alive or anyone that he found to be helping the dead. I was welcome with them if I joined his flock and marked myself as a warrior for our Lord.” He took a deep breath. “I wish I could say that I joined just so that I wasn’t alone or that I wouldn't go hungry. I was you know, alone and hungry, but that wasn’t it. I wanted to kill everything that had taken my family away.” He looked long and hard into Bob’s eyes, as though he was trying to look deeper, to look at Bob’s soul. Deciding that Bob was a good person, he continued. “At first he was a good person to be around. I had nothing left to live for and he gave me a reason to go on. I was doing the Lord’s work and setting the world right again.”
“But something changed?” Bob asked.
“A few weeks back we were looking for food. The group, or Crusaders, as the Preacher calls them, had grown to over fifty people so food was always scarce. Never enough to get past a day or two. We came across what I figured had been a real beauty before things changed. Probably had a good life, been given everything she had ever asked for. We took her in like we did everyone that we found, especially women.” He closed his eyes and took a couple deep breaths. “This one had something with her in an old dog cage. You know the ones that people used to use to crate train their dogs?”
Bob knew, though wasn’t really a fan of crate training back then or after. “Only there wasn’t a dog in it?”
“No, no dog. Haven’t seen a live dog until I saw your two.”
“What was in the crate?” Bob asked.
Jonas threw the remaining cold coffee into the river and set his cup on the rock. He looked harder into Bob’s face but wasn’t seeing Bob.
“She had a small child, a small dead child that was biting at the cage and making a horrible sound. I looked at the child, looked for a long time, you know. There wasn’t anything like a child left. It was just another dead thing that would eat you alive if it could. Big difference was it moved fast I thought. Everyone said I was imagining it; you couldn’t possibly tell that from movement in the cage they told me. I knew, knew it in my soul that it was different. Study something long enough and you can see differences. Like how—it didn’t always look at the woman like she was a meal. Like it could tell that its existence was in her hands.” Visions of his own daughter flashed in his head. How much he had prayed that the last look he had gotten from her had been the look the woman had gotten from her kid.
We all knew the thing in the cage had to be put down. It was God’s will that the demons be sent back to Hell. What I hadn’t seen coming was the woman. The Preacher had said all along that when the Lord spoke to him that it was clear that we were God’s Army and that we had to vanquish the demons and their helpers. I guess keeping your dead kid in a cage is considered helping. I stayed around a few days after the job was done. I didn’t take part in it—just couldn’t see that I was doing the Lord’s will anymore, you see? So, I left the only way I could without getting accused of being tempted by the demons.”
“I can understand why they killed the thing,” Bob said, not wanting to give it the label of ‘child’— 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 torn 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. Quick thinking Virginia pulled the crutches she had grabbed back in the medical wing out from the bed of the truck and presented them to Jack. The narrow steep stairs of the Winnie were hard to navigate but once outside Jack moved 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 mind.
They all sat at the picnic table with Jack at the end so he could keep his leg extended and also be nearest to the RV door, in case they had to move him in quickly. The apprehension the group felt toward Jonas had left when Bob accepted him into the group. Jonas seemed equally put at ease being welcomed. 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 as 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—the zombies—will too. If everyone else that survived heads south so will they. 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 way 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. “I 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 seeing as he knew exactly where it was. There were no signs of zombies or people sighted 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. The field was in dire need of harvesting with stalks grown taller than most men, several husks on each. From the cornfield the road led into a somewhat hilly, wooded area. The truck and cycle navigated brilliantly but the RV struggled, barely fitting at times and fighting against becoming bogged 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 Jonas went forward, unlocking and dragging open the gate, allowing the others to pass. After the RV went through Bob had Lori pull over so he could close the gate though he noticed was already Jonas dragging it closed and chaining it.
From there it seemed like they drove close to another mile back through deeper woods until a clearing become visible up ahead. There they found the lake or ‘strip mine’ as Bob 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 a place that wouldn’t attract attention. He wanted anyone who came upon this site to think it was a crappy old shack, weekend hovel hunters and fishermen used occasionally—or perhaps that no one had used in years. Bob knew one thing bug out shelter needed was camouflage.
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. Most of them 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 tree roots. The soil was hard packed but the roots broke the surface ever few feet before disappearing back down below the surface. It made navigating the area on crutches challenging to say the least.
“Don’t judge a book by its cover, my good man,” Bob replied as he unlocked the shack door.
He pulled the spindly make-shift-door all the way open, revealing a metal door with several built-in locks. Bob wracked the metal a few times with his knuckles and said over his shoulder, “Six inches thick.” He then went to work unlocking the series of locks and pushed inward opening the door. When they could better see the sides of the door, they realized it looked more like a vault door than a standard building entrance door. Reaching in, he flipped a switch and the room was aglow with light.
A chorus of ahhhhs and smiles emerged from the group behind him.
“There are solar panels up top. They are hidden from view unless you are flying above. Never quite figured out the best way to camouflage them without screwing up their function.” 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 the freshwater tanks. It was truly amazing how big it was once they became familiar with the place. Bob said the walls were about three feet thick and the door barred from the inside with thick steel rods. No zombies were getting into the place. 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, 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, 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 while going to get supplies from it. Moving the trailer was easier said than done but with everyone’s help they got it moved. Not exactly how Bob had described it, but close enough, he agreed.
Dinner and conv
ersation were short; exhaustion was overcoming everyone. 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 they were at the bunker that it seemed everyone was settled in, Lori thought. It took a little bit of effort to get along. Lori supposed that the threat of death hiding behind every corner suppressed the usual disagreements and personality conflicts they were settling into while feeling safe from zombies. Being behind three feet of concrete and stone wall, capped off by six inches of steel door was comforting. There had been no sign of zombies or 2.0s for some time. If not for the fresh game that Virginia and Jonas brought home every day, they wouldn’t have seen anything dead at all. Lori sighed; the situation was settling into normal—as normal could be during the apocalypse. 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 of the group 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 conducive to survival. 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 clothes. Bob 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 better than the others, 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.
