“You need this more than I do,” she said. She got up and turned to face me. “Thank you for bringing him home.”
She leaned down and kissed me on the head and then walked away.
Epilogue
It has been almost a year since the zombie horde nearly destroyed the camp. Larson’s office building and mess hall was cleared away and a new school building was built in its place. When they were clearing away the rubble, I only found one piece of evidence that might lead us to the answers we need; a piece of burnt letter head with the name “Axiom” printed across the top. It was the same name of the building we saw in San Francisco. So far though, that is all we have to go on.
The rest of the perimeter fencing was torn down and replaced with the reinforced metal bars and thus far we haven’t seen any zombies.
The HK directive was completely removed from our mission and the team was reformed solely as a search and rescue operation. Its sole purpose now was to find people who had been stranded out there and offer our support. We’ve recently made contact with another camp further south on the other side of the mountain range. Ironically, it was the burning of the zombie carcasses that drew them too us. We regularly trade supplies and intel with them.
Eric was able to finish work on the train engine and we are slowly making our way east. The track is heavily damaged and requires repairs as we move along. Our plan is to head to the aeronautics boneyard in Tucson, Arizona which is the home to thousands of decommissioned aircraft. While we weren’t able to secure an airplane on our initial journey south it has now become a priority. The availability of one would greatly help us make contact with other camps. It will take us a couple of years I imagine, but I have confidence we will find what we need there.
Charlie eventually healed from his wound, although he was mad that he missed most of the action. It took him a while, but he eventually reconciled with Eric. Apparently, they didn’t part on the best of terms. Charlie now helps Eric down at the train depot clearing and laying track.
California and Emily now share a cabin. Shortly after the events at the camp that day, he took her out into the forest to retrieve the dog we had buried that morning. Together they removed it from its burial spot and took it, along with her brother, back to the house and buried them in the garden. They have since removed the charred rubble of the house and turned the rest of the area into a garden and memorial.
As for me, I head the search and rescue operations in hopes of finding other people to help. Larson said that we don’t band together because we are selfless, we band together because we are selfish. I suppose he’s right in a way, but I choose to believe that we do it because we are selfless.
Wanderer (Book 2): Hunters Page 19
