Born In The Apocalypse (Book 3): Jericho

by Joseph Talluto

  I went back to the stable and found Kim had finally gotten up. I told her about the men I had killed and the house in the basement. She nodded at the first part and looked incredulous at the second.

  “Seriously? The entire house in the basement?” Kim asked.

  “Exactly the same,” I said. “It must have taken them a while to build it and furnish it, but yeah, it was the same.”

  “And they were down there?” Kim said.

  “Lying on the bed together. Looks like they poisoned themselves,” I said.

  “Wow. I want to go see, but I don’t. Does that make sense?” Kim asked.

  “It actually does. After I saw it, I kind of wished I hadn’t. Made me kind of sad. They had nowhere to go and no way to defend themselves out here so they hid away. And when they realized that the world wasn’t going to get better, they just decided to leave it,” I said. “On the other side of it, I have to admit it was the most clever thing I have seen so far.”

  I finished my morning meal and packed up my bag. The horses seemed ready to move after a good night’s rest, and I was grateful to move as well. This place had seen a lot of death. I had a hand in that death, truth be told, but it was there nonetheless.

  I pushed the wagon out into the driveway and it slid a lot better over the snow than the floor of the stable. We walked the horses out, and this time, I hooked Missy up to the wagon. She needed to learn a new skill, too. Pumpkin resumed her place at the rear of the wagon, that skill was easy to learn.

  Chapter 50

  We headed south, staying on the road until we reached a small town. The road we were on ran along the outside of the town, where it met with another road heading south. We took the south road and stayed on it, quickly getting back to farm roads. I was trying to stay off the larger beaten paths just in case we were still being followed.

  The roads we took were the roads that went around the farms in the area. I remembered seeing the same thing across the middle of the state. The roads covered a square mile of farmland. We saw a lot of empty fields, a lot of empty farmhouses, and a lot of empty barns.

  Missy wasn’t as agreeable to the wagon as Judy had been. She tended to wander all over the road, making the wagon slide back and forth. At one point, it almost fell off the road into the ditch.

  As we moved south, the number of occupied areas increased. We passed several farms and homes that had survived the Trippers, and we traded for supplies at several of them. I traded off the guns I took from the three men I had killed, getting some dry goods for the road. One farmer had some jerked beef that he traded, and I thought it tasted better than venison, but Kim didn’t like it. More for me, I guess.

  We kept traveling south, deeper and deeper into farm country. None of the farms were worked as actual farms, but they did what they could with the equipment they had. Most of them had an acre or so of land they used as a garden, and they let the rest go to attract animals and birds. One man we met gave us some pheasant meat. For some reason, he had a lot of the birds and hunted them often. I hunted pheasant with my bow and stunned myself stupid when I actually hit one.

  We stayed in homes that were abandoned, and it was good to see in this area that there were a lot more occupied homes than not. I had a fear that the men after me might try and kill the ones I met, but the people here were very self-sufficient, and wouldn’t take that kind of thing lightly. I told each one that there might be some men following me, and to keep clear of them. It was the best I could do to try and keep them safer. I didn’t tell them about the other side of the wall, and Kim asked me about it one day as we traveled.

  “Don’t you think they should know?” Kim asked.

  “Sometimes I do, but then if I did, I would be condemning them to an early death,” I said. “Let me ask you this. What if we told everyone we could find? They’d jump the wall and be killed piecemeal. If they did manage to get over in a group, they’d be hunted like I was. I got very lucky, but likely only because I was a single person. They set themselves up to keep mass migrations out.”

  “Still feels wrong not telling them,” Kim said.

  “Tell you what. The next people we meet, we’ll ask them, and see what they say. If they seem likely to try it, let them go,” I said.

  Kim thought a minute. “Maybe we should be giving them the choice.”

  I shrugged. “Maybe. But let me ask you this. If I hadn’t gone out and found a place to live, a safer place, would you have wanted to leave the life you built for yourself? We’d be asking people to leave their homes, only take what they can carry, and go try and make a life in a place eminently hostile to them. At least with the Trippers, we know what we’re getting.”

  “You’re right. We should have stayed where we were. It wasn’t great, but we were doing pretty well,” Kim said. She shivered in her coat. “I blame you for this.”

  I leaned over and pulled her close for a long kiss. “I’m glad you’re here,” I said, releasing her and letting her get her balance back. Pumpkin grunted at the weight shift.

  Kim smiled. “I’m glad, too. I was just teasing.”

  We rode further, and as we did, I saw more and more signs that there had been a lot of Tripper activity in this area. I remembered coming up this way before, and that enormous Tripper horde that had kept me in a church for a while. I wondered where they were right now, and I hoped that I wasn’t right in the middle of their territory. I thought I was too far north for them, but there was nothing that said they had to stay where they were.

  Chapter 51

  We spent the night in a house that was by a river, and by my reckoning, it was the Kankakee River. That meant the city of Kankakee was directly to our southwest. We were going to have to be careful in getting past that town. There was sure to be some Tripper activity there. We were far enough out that there shouldn’t be a problem, but then you never knew.

  Kim and I put the horses up in the large garage across the way from the house. Because there were Trippers nearby, I brought in with me my rifle, my Colt, and my bow. Kim had her gun and her bow, and we set up like we were in hostile territory. The front windows were covered with blankets from the bedroom, and the door was reinforced with a dresser. I scouted the back of the house and found that there was a path that led down towards the river, and this particular homeowner had a small pier that led a little into the river, and sitting on the pier was a small aluminum boat. It reminded me of the boat Trey and I used when we got very lost. I thought about that and it seemed so long ago.

  The sun was not yet down, but we decided to go to bed early. I was tired from traveling, and I know Kim was. The horses were secure, and happy with their feed and river water.

  We spread our blankets over a big bed in one of the bedrooms and climbed into bed together. We had slept close for enough weeks that it didn’t even feel strange. Kim put her head on my shoulder and slept on her side while I wrapped her in my arm and slept on my back. Sometimes, she would put her leg over mine, but most of the time, she was asleep when she did that.

  Tonight, she kept moving her arm, and when I looked down at her, she looked back. We stared for a long while, then she surprised me.

  “I love you, Josh,” Kim said.

  I was floored. I had never imagined Kim thought about me that way at all, despite our hugs and kisses. I had a single response that had been in my head for a couple of years.

  “It’s about time. I love you, too,” I said with a big smile. I hugged her close, and her hand kept moving around.

  Kim looked at me seriously. “I think it’s time we did something about it,” she said.

  I knew what she was talking about; I hadn’t read only westerns in my time. I did read a couple of my mother’s romance novels.

  I knew this wasn’t a time to be cavalier. I settled on honesty.

  “I really have no idea what to do,” I admitted.

  Kim grinned. “You lay there; I’ll take care of the rest.”

  And she did.

  Chapter 5
2

  I woke in the dead of night to a banging sound. I listened for a minute and realized it was coming from outside. It almost sounded like someone was screaming as well. I looked down and saw Kim was still sleeping, so she wasn’t the problem. I slipped out of the bed and put my clothes on. It took a minute to find them since Kim took great delight in taking them off me and throwing them around the room. That was almost as much fun as watching her take her own clothes off. The memories of our lovemaking made it a little difficult to put my pants on; I had to concentrate on the noise outside.

  Getting my rifle, I went into the front room and cautiously approached the front window. I hugged the wall and slowly opened the blanket, keeping my head back. I didn’t see anything, then a Tripper came out of the darkness and walked past the window.

  I ducked back, thankful the Tripper was walking away from me. I heard the banging again, and I realized that Missy must have smelled a Tripper or saw one walk by the window and was frustrated that she couldn’t go out there and kill it. Missy never got over her need to kill the Trippers. She must have been hurt by one when she was younger. I wasn’t worried about the other horses; there was enough space for them to stay out of the way, but her banging around would keep attracting Trippers. The big question I had was what was I going to do about it?

  I went back to the bedroom and saw Kim was still sleeping. I didn’t what was going to happen, so I decided to wake her up.

  “Kim, there’s Trippers outside,” I said quietly in her ear.

  Kim popped up from the bed, and I had a teasing glimpse of her naked form before she put her clothes on faster than I could draw my Colt.

  “Trippers? Where? Are the horses okay?” Kim asked, belting on her gun.

  “They’re fine, but Missy is causing a ruckus and I don’t know how to quiet her down. I can’t go out there, and I sure don’t want her attracting more,” I said, getting my bow and quiver. Kim grabbed hers.

  We went up to the front of the house and we could hear Missy making noise. I didn’t know how many Trippers were out there now, so I decided to take a peek. I pulled aside the blanket and stared right into the face of a Tripper.

  He saw me the same time I saw him, and he opened his mouth and let out a horrible wheeze I could hear through the glass. The next thing that came through the window was the Tripper’s hands as he smashed it.

  I jumped back as glass came flying, and Kim screamed. That scream was a clarion call to the Trippers, and suddenly there was wheezing all over the place. Where one Tripper was trying to get in the window, scrambling and clawing, suddenly there were ten, and more coming behind them.

  “Go, go, go!” I said, pushing Kim ahead of me.

  “Where I am going?” Kim yelled, heading towards the kitchen.

  “Out the back!” I said.

  “What if there’s Trippers?” Kim asked.

  “Then we kill them, but we can’t stay here!” I said. I reached the back door first as the sound of Trippers moving through the house followed us. I went through the door and barreled into a small Tripper.

  I managed to keep my feet, but the Tripper went sprawling in the snow. She got up soon enough and came at me, raging and grasping. I stepped to the side and pushed her past me, tossing her into the house. Kim closed the door, and we left the Trippers where they were.

  Our respite was short lived as the back door exploded outward with the pressure of dozens of Trippers.

  “Run!” I said, drawing an arrow and killing the nearest Tripper. As it was only ten feet from me, it wasn’t a difficult shot.

  “Where?” Kim asked, turning away.

  I had an idea. “The pier! Go there!” I said, pushing Kim along.

  “I don’t know where it is!”

  I forgot that part. “Come on!” I said. I grabbed her hand and pulled her along. We ran toward the water and then along its edge. More Trippers were coming around the side of the house and several were still coming through the back door.

  Kim and I hit the pier at a dead run and we reached the boat. I flipped it over and told Kim to get in. Trippers reached the pier in a pile of teeth, fists, and rage. I shoved the boat across the snow and jumped in as we landed in the water. Kim yelled as the boat dipped very low in the river, but it righted itself and we moved across the hundred feet of water until we landed on the other side. Kim grabbed some tree branches over the water to pull us in, and I shoved us forward until we were able to get out without getting wet.

  I pulled the boat up and Kim and I scouted the area. It turned out we hadn’t really crossed the river at all, we just happened to be on a small island in the river. On the other side, Trippers were falling into the water and were sinking out of sight. Several were standing on the edge of the water, looking over like they wanted to take a swim. Thanks to the trees, Kim and I were largely invisible.

  “Well, we may lose some arrows, but I think a bit of target practice is in order,” I said.

  Kim laughed. “You sure know how to show a girl a good time.”

  “I thought I did that earlier,” I said.

  “Oh, God,” Kim said.

  We shot the small horde of Trippers that were standing on the pier and on the lawn. I shot ten of them, and Kim shot eleven. We waited in the cold for about fifteen minutes, and when the Trippers didn’t show up, we figured the coast was at least much clearer than it was.

  “How are we going to get across?” Kim asked.

  “Well, wait here,” I said. I took the boat and did pretty much the same thing I did before, only this time Kim wasn’t with me.

  I made it to the other side, pulling myself across the last few feet by grabbing the leg of a dead Tripper that was half in the water. I circled the house and went through it, finding only one Tripper that I killed easily. He was stuck in the window and not going anywhere.

  Missy had calmed down when the Trippers went away, and the other horses looked at me like I was crazy. I took an extension cord off the wall and went back to the pier.

  I tied the extension cord to my arrow and shot it over to Kim. After that, it was easy to send the boat over and pull her back.

  We took our stuff out of the house and went over to the garage with the horses. There was a small office space in there and there was room enough to sleep. I was suddenly so tired I couldn’t even stand up. As soon as the blankets were on the ground, I fell down and just closed my eyes. Kim joined me and I think I was asleep before she was.

  Missy was quiet, so the Trippers were gone, at least for now.

  Chapter 53

  After a lot of deliberation, we figured it may be safe by now to hit the highway. I had two reasons for this: one the highway was safer to travel than the back roads, being fenced-in on two sides, and two, I wasn’t exactly sure where the massive horde might be and I didn’t want to find myself in the middle of it with no place to go.

  We followed the road towards Kankakee, and I rode with my rifle across my lap. I wasn’t taking any chances as we got closer and closer to what once was civilization. Kankakee was a big place, and the likelihood of Trippers hanging out was pretty high.

  The road took us past a tall building that had a lot of windows. It looked like an office building, but not exactly the same. I asked Kim about it.

  “That’s a condo building. There’s lots of them up north,” she said.

  “What’s a condo building?”

  “That’s where there’s a bunch of little homes all stacked on top of each other. One and two bedrooms, usually with a living room and a kitchen,” Kim said.

  I looked at the building and just shook my head. I couldn’t imagine for the life of me living in a place where I couldn’t step out my back door and see my own land. That was just how I was. That stacked up living was just nuts. I said so to Kim.

  She laughed at me. “You’d hate the city, then.”

  No need to tell me, I was already there. I had no desire whatsoever to see a major city. I was curious, though. If I could see Chicago from a safe
distance, I’d take a peek.

  We took an on-ramp carefully to the highway, working our way around a few wrecked and rusting cars. There were more on the highway, which told me Kankakee wasn’t the best place to try and find a place for two refugees and three horses with a wagon.

  The sun arced across the sky and we kept moving south. I made Missy pull the wagon again because she was naughty last night. Judy was more attuned to the environment. I tried getting Pumpkin more alert, but I think she was a lot older than we thought she was. Nothing seemed to phase her; she just took it as it came.

  We got off the road at the exit of Ashkum, and went west on County Road 2. There was a farmhouse just down the road, and we opted to stop there. There was a nice barn behind the house, a big, old-fashioned one. I hailed the house, and Kim waited with the horses while I did my usual checking. Everything seemed okay, so we put the horses in their own stalls, fed them with the feed we still had and some hay that was up in the loft. Water was a little trickier, but we managed to pull up some from a well that had been covered over with a wood plank.

  The farmhouse was a two-story affair that had seen some better days, but it was tight and it was dry. Inside there was every bit of evidence that the people who lived here still did. There was food in the pantry, clothes in the bedrooms, and I found a shotgun in a small niche by the door. Down in the basement was a collection of bows and targets. I looked them over but none was as good as the one I already had. I took the arrows, though, since you could never have enough of them. The guy who lived here was a big fan of broadhead arrowheads. I found boxes of them, and I brought a couple upstairs. They would be good if we got a shot at a deer.

  Kim raided the food, and managed to put together a decent meal. As we ate, we talked about the farmhouse.

  “Where do you think the owners are?” Kim asked.