by J. Rudolph
"Well, Jack, I'm about to make your day. We happen to have a nurse in our group, and another that knows a lot about homeopathic medicines. Maybe we can set up some sort of trade agreement between our groups and make life better for everyone."
"When you guys are settled in, I think we will definitely have some business to do. Thank you, it's nice to have something to look forward to." Jack's voice had a definite lift in it. I could hear indistinct chatter in the background when Trent said that we had resources that they needed that matched the hope we felt when they said they had knowledge on animals. Our whole game plan was going to be dependent on fishing and gardening and I wasn't sure it was going to be enough. If their group had a way to make things more sustainable then we had a chance as well.
"Same here, Jack. It will be nice to know someone who has knowledge of the land already."
"Well, I have taken enough of your time, I just wanted to get a feel for you guys. I look forward to talking to you in the future. It's a real pleasure knowing we are getting good neighbors. We'll talk to you later. Jack, out."
"Night, Jack."
The original hiss sound of a disconnected radio came back over the speaker and we knew that we were no longer on the same frequency of Jack and his people. We sat together in a stunned silence. I was blown over by how natural that whole conversation felt. It was such a relief to be done with the fear we had felt, and we bathed in the feeling of peace.
Tyreese was the first to speak after we all had a moment to digest our thoughts.
"Well, I am so grateful that went well. I do have to point out one thing though, that could have gone the total opposite direction. I have been kicking myself ever since that box showed up. Our complete lack of security could have meant the end of us. We let the various tasks we have been working on overrun our common sense. We have no idea if there have been other people wandering by. We only know about these guys because they left evidence for us. I hope that this Jack guy will let us know if we have anything to worry about with any other locals, but that would depend on him knowing about them as well. Guard duty is something we need to have put in place on very short order." We all agreed.
"I have a question,” I started, “because it has been on my mind for the last few days. What will it take to be ready to move everyone in?" I had been trying to catalog a to-do list since Trent and Jack started talking about a trade of services, and just couldn't imagine that there was that much left.
"We mostly just need to test the walls, make sure we didn't leave any gaping holes, and make sure that the temporary bus gates will hold, then it's just a matter of making the houses clean enough to live in." Trent replied.
"Well, here is my thought then, let's work on the wall tests and turn the school into a temporary hotel. Everyone can work on their houses from there. I'm thinking if we speed up this timetable, we won't have to divide our security and resources over two states and we could have some of this stuff done so much quicker. I don't want to rush it if we aren't all the way ready though, because the last thing any of us needs is to have to endure any more losses that would have been preventable if we had been more careful."
"Cali, I think that is a fantastic idea. I wish we had thought of that sooner," Tanya said, with a sparkle in her eye, "because, yes, that's exactly what we need to do. DaWayne has been chomping at the bit to be back to work in security on a bigger scale than we have been, and I know all the kids can't wait to have room to work up a full head of steam again, not to mention that little garage that was there, I know the older boys will want to start in there as soon as possible. I think in the morning, we should start to work on the wall checks, and just pull the trigger on this."
Lacey nodded emphatically before adding, "I agree. It's a bit like waiting to be ready for a baby, this move. You can only be so prepared. There will definitely be things that we'll wish we had done first, but as long as the big parts are taken care of, we'll be alright. Besides, many hands make for light work, right? I'll be thrilled to have help getting these houses cleaned out." Light chatter erupted in agreement. We were all feeling pretty positive over the idea, and I couldn't wait to have Drew with us again. I couldn't wait to see all of their reactions at the creek.
It occurred to me that we hadn't taken Lacey and Tanya to our creek yet, so under the light of the full moon, that was what we did. They were as entranced with the beauty of the water as I was sure they would be. We had been storing the gear next to the water anyway so we pulled them out and fished for a while and let the sounds of the night keep us company while we talked about the future that was coming up. We discussed making trenches to route water from the creek to the rest of the town. That was going to be a ton of work but it was hopeful work.
We saw a future and a life that didn't revolve around the zombies. We were going to be able to go to bed without hearing them scratch at the fence and we were going to be able to actually move around in our own homes without tripping over everyone else. We weren't ever going to go back to a pre-zombie life, but we were going to finally have something that was very, very close.
Save The Date
We slept well with the word hope dancing in the back of our subconscious, like the sugar plums from a children's story. We were going to be speeding up the move by a little bit, but that wasn't as scary to any of us as we feared it might be. In fact, the direct opposite was true. We were excited to be coming home. For once, fear wasn't part of the gamut of feelings that hit us as we ran around getting ready to get the day started.
When we woke up, we were greeted by the sounds of birds in the trees over the creek bed. We dressed quickly so we could start on the work ahead. Trent had left the bus gate open a hair so we would be able to come back in, so the first thing we did was sweep for zombies that may have passed by our house and into our town. As it happened, there was one there. Matt drew his crossbow to take care of it when Trent stopped him.
"I have an idea. We need this place to be checked to make sure it is zombie proof, right? So here's what I'm thinking. Let's catch it, put it outside the wall, then try to lure it in. If it makes it inside, we'll know that there is a weak point to fix. Saves us the hassle of trying to think like a zombie."
"Man," Tyreese chuckled, "you're more twisted than I thought you were! Who needs to crawl around getting cut up on crap when we don't have to? We stop when something hurts, they don't. I like it." He clapped Trent on his shoulder, before he added, "But, Einstein, how do you want to move it to the right side of the wall? Are you going to be the carrot?"
Matt looked at the zombie, deep in thought. "In the fire department, there are catch poles that they probably used for stray dogs. We can use them to make it to go where we want it to go. We hook it around the neck and lead it out, like a rabid dog."
"Brother, I like your problem solving. I knew you had it in you, well, somewhere." Lucas joked.
"That's why mom called me son. I'm brighter than the average bear." Matt kept his expression totally serious as he delivered the line, but quickly after, he broke into a large grin. "Come on Luc, let's find them."
The brothers took off in a light jog to the fire department's building and quickly emerged with their finds in hand. Trent jogged towards the zombie to grab its attention, being the carrot after all, so it was focused on him when Matt and Lucas slipped behind it and slipped the snares on it. They wrestled the zombie out the front gate while I closed the gap in the wall. I used the bus as a ladder and climbed up on the shipping container. I slammed my hand against the side of the box to distract the zombie to look at me. The head moved in a swift jerk to face the noise. Milk-white eyes that obscured what color the iris had been, and a dark spot where the pupils leaked through the haze, searched for the sound until it found me. It reached for me with trembling hands; its torn tendons were flapping around the wrist like a frayed glove and broken bones protruded from the back of the hand at various angles, as it tried so hard to come close enough to grab me. I began to walk on the top of the cont
ainer, dragging a foot behind me to make a loud clatter against the corrugated metal to draw it along and it followed. When I came to the bridge from one container to the other, sitting over many stacks of tires and sharp sticks with barbed wire entwined in them, I paused. I feared it was this type of fence that they would make it through, and I wanted to take my time with it. Tanya and Lacey stood on the other side making noises to encourage it to try for them. The zombie walked right into their trap and found itself stuck on one of the sticks, but it never did make through. I called to Matt to give me the pole, and when he gave it to me, I used it to push the zombie off of the spike. It slid off with a slurp sound, leaving black blood on the stick and running down the front of its shirt. It wasn't fazed by the latest hole in its side. It wanted to try again in the same spot, and I had to work at getting it to refocus. I have to say that zombies are definitely a tenacious bunch. Once it finally got a lock on me, we continued our little walk around the wall. We repeated this dance of getting stuck and unstuck over and over again, but the zombie never did make through to the other side. We worked hard at trying to lure it in through the bus gates, the point that Trent worried about, but it failed. For one and a half miles, we proved that the walls were enough.
I borrowed Matt's crossbow and took out the zombie once we made the full circle back to where we started. I was smiling super large, but Trent looked like he was deep in thought. I wondered what the problem was that he wasn't celebrating the success of the trial like the rest of us were.
"What's going on, hon?" I asked.
"Well, it's safe against one zombie, but what if it isn't safe against a herd of them?"
Tyreese over heard what Trent said, and added, "Well, it's not as though we are going to leave these walls unattended right? That was why we made the shelters at the gates, so someone will be on watch at all times. If a herd comes and we start firing on them, a lot of the herd is going to be thinned out before they ever are close to the wall, right?"
I nodded. "We could make a policy that if multiple rounds go off, it's an all hands on deck situation and everybody needs to come to the wall and take down zombies. By the time any of them reach the wall, there should be only one or two left alive if we have that much coming at them, and we could make sure that we report to the spots that are made of filler first."
Trent considered the idea and ultimately agreed. He started walking around the inside of the wall, studying it thoughtfully over and over again. As he was going around, looking for any major cracks in the wall, I watched him. While I was watching my husband, Lacey came to me. The look in her eyes said that she was concerned about something, so I focused my attention on her.
"Cali, first, I moved the cans of food that we found when we were cleaning out the houses out of my trunk and put them in the cafeteria, there's no point in transporting them back there when we are just making a turnaround trip. The second thing is we need to make sure there is a place for everyone to sleep that first night. Maybe we should go into the houses and find the clean beds and drag the mattresses and blankets over to the school." I had to admire her thoughtfulness, and I was grateful that she had the foresight to think of the sleeping arrangements. I would have been on the way to retrieve the rest of the group before it crossed my mind. I climbed down a ladder and found the guys and explained the project at hand. We had twenty-four people that were going to need a place to sleep. I wasn't sure that there would be enough clean beds, and by clean, I meant without gore from zombies or suicide on them, not free from the mountains of dirt that was just part of life. It was amazing how many people went to their beds to kill themselves. I reminded myself that if we found a few large mattresses, we would have the option of doubling people up. We also could take some of the beds with us when we cleared out Kristen's house, if we needed them.
We worked hard at the project. House by house, we pulled out the beds that were worthwhile. Mattresses always were the worst part of moving, and my body ached after only two houses. The worst part of moving mattresses to me was that they never had a good point to put your hands on it, and they flopped around at the most inopportune time. Stairs were a guaranteed wobble point and more than once, I was sure that I was going to go tumbling down the staircase.
Like a miracle, were able to find enough beds to make sure everyone was comfortable and we found enough bedding as well. The people of Wilsall had their winter sheets as well as their summer sheets, and the winter sheets were all stored away in the linen cupboards. It was very nice to find them there, because I sure didn't like the idea of sleeping on the dusty sheets that were still on the beds. We would definitely go down to the creek at some point and have the sheets cleaned but for now, we were going to be happy to have the warmer sheets anyway.
When we came across the gross mattresses, we decided that since we were already doing the mattress duty we would go ahead and throw out these ones as well, although since we didn't plan to try and salvage them, we had no problem with pushing them out a window. At least it would be one less thing to have to do later. We added those beds to the pile of the dead bonfire. It needed to rain soon, this pile of death was getting really big and really gross.
While Trent and I were dropping off a pile to burn, I noticed that in the distance there was a building. I pointed it out to Trent and we went over to investigate what we missed. I was a little confused over how we missed something like a building until we wandered closer and noticed that there was a fallen tree. It probably was hiding the building right until it fell.
The building was a church. We peeked inside the windows to see if there was anyone inside and found that it was full of the dead. I wondered if the people that were inside were people that used to live in Wilsall and went here to hide. In another window I saw that there were several cots set up. It occurred to me that this place was likely the place that was chosen to be the evacuation site for people to ride out the zombie storm together in the house of God. By the looks of all the people that were milling around inside, they let in the wrong person. There were so many people inside, including women and children, and my heart ached for them all. I checked the doors to make sure there was no way for them to make it out of their prison. They were stuck for sure.
"Trent, I know we're supposed to kill all of the zombies we come across, but I'm thinking that since these ones aren't a threat, can we leave them alone for now?" My voice was heavy and my shoulders were drooped in a defeated posture. I didn't have a clue why it mattered to me that we left these ones alone, but it did. I was on the edge of tears as I imagined the people inside huddled together, afraid of the monsters that were coming as they prayed for a miracle. It was obvious that the prayer was answered with a no.
Trent wrapped his arms around me and I put my head on his shoulder. "Well, you know that we can't just let this be. I think that what we should do is have Ty move the burn pile to this building. It isn't a church anymore, not with all of these trapped souls. When it comes time to start the fire, we will start it here, and make sure that there is nothing left here. We don't have to storm in and take them out if you don't want to."
I nodded in acceptance of the fate of these people. I felt badly for the lost people there, and grateful that I wasn't going to have to fight them. It did seem kinder to take the fire to them and free them from being trapped here.
By the time we had everything set up inside the school, it was the middle of the afternoon. It wasn't going to be possible to go back to Idaho and come back before dark. Matt and Lacey decided to go back that night though, and have everyone start packing up so when the rest of us came back to help move they would have a jump on the packing part. Fortunately there wasn't a whole lot to move, it was just the logistics. Those of us that stayed looked for more food in the houses and set up the net to fish with. Trent and Tyreese went hunting in the area around our home. We noticed that there were signs that there were deer and boar around so we thought if there was a way to have one ready for the move in we could have a nice welcome
home party. I really liked the sound of that, welcome home. I couldn't wait to see the look on everyone's faces as they came into town. This was going to be the best thing that has happened to us since the start of it all.
Tanya and I realized there was no point in going back to the safe house tonight to sleep since we were pretty well set up in the school. We went up to the house and pulled all of the stuff that we wanted to have in the town, while leaving things that needed to be here like the beds for people that were traveling through. I still loved that we were going to have a guest house for the strangers that might be passing through, even if no one ended up coming. I liked knowing that we were giving back, if even in a small way. Besides, who knew if we would need a place at some point to house people that wanted to trade with us but didn't want to be trapped in our walls. I knew that it would be something I would want as an option.
After we collected stuff, we went back to the school and started cleaning up the cafeteria. It was going to be a nice little banquet hall. While we worked I pictured the looks on everyone's faces as Matt and Lacey told them that it was time to get busy on packing. I imagined that there were going to be a lot of happy people. Lucas went to work taking the seats out of another bus so there was a place to load up all the stuff from Kristen's. The bus that we took way back in Utah was still at th
