by Tom Germann
“Wagner. Steven has a point. A vehicle could break down or be damaged during a breakout. It’s not like these are modern armored vehicles that can take some punishment. We’re doing everything we can to protect them now just driving at a jogging speed. I wouldn’t want to see how the cars do ramming zombies out of the way. Over.”
“Vajjer. Seen.”
The vehicles slowly drove down the highway, leaving the horde far behind. As the miles slowly passed, tiny hamlets were occasionally passed and regularly, an abandoned vehicle was seen at the side of the road, usually pushed off into the ditch. The convoy didn’t stop for any of it. They saw the occasional zombie at the side as well and sometimes on the road. They did their best to move around them, but the lead car ended up with several dents from bumping zombies out of the way as the miles passed.
As they passed, the zombies, the blank-faced creatures, would turn and start following the vehicles. Even those that were hit in passing would stagger to their feet, or in one case, started dragging itself along on the ground after them.
After a while, the radios were being used to chat and jokes were flying over the airwaves. The overall tone was getting more and more desperate and depressed.
In the cab of the pickup truck, Wagner shook his head while listening to the conversations. Steven just looked at him.
“You know you’re in charge, Warrant? You could just tell them to stop it. This isn’t helping anyone out.”
Wagner shook his head while keeping his eyes on the road and vehicles ahead. “Not at all, Steven. Everyone needs to release some of the pressure. Think about it. We went from our world to here. We have zombies that have attacked us. We meet survivors and one gets infected and the boyfriend blows his brains out in front of us instead of turning. They need to vent a bit and we have to figure out what’s going on, and how to survive and prosper here.”
Steven looked at the man driving and considered. “Call me Steve, I was never really into Steven, that was just a work habit. I know what you mean. I don’t think it helps that no one has really had any sleep, either. Some people are just not holding up as well. Maybe if you let everyone in on what your plan is they would settle down until we get some rest?”
Wagner stuck his hand out. “Here give me the radio. While I get to pass on the immediate plan, you need to get back into those history books and see what else is going on here that we need to know.”
Steve handed him the radio and sighed while he picked up a book. titled, “Etiquette for a Junior Officer in the US Military.” On the spine, it read ‘forty-second edition.’
Wagner rolled his head on his neck twice before pressing the talk button.
“Wagner. Alright, everyone listen up as this is the plan for today. We are moving slow and my best estimate is that we would be hitting the city limits late tonight, well after dark. I really don’t want to head into an area that could be full of zombies in the dark in vehicles that may or may not make it much further. Everyone is also messed up from lack of sleep and that can cause problems. We need rest and sleep. So we are going to find a place where we can park the vehicles before night falls. I would prefer that we find some place where we can park everything inside out of sight. We passed a farm and those barns are pretty big. From what we know of the terrain, we are coming out of the hills shortly. We are going to find some place safe and go to ground. When we get wherever we are going, we will have to set up quickly and be quiet and let no light show. We don’t know what attracts the zombies, but we’ll be as careful as we can. Steve has been reading up on where we are and what’s gone on and can brief us when we stop. Everyone just keep calm and we’ll get a break soon. We need to keep our eyes open and if we come to a place we can stop, we’ll take it. So hold on and we’ll be some place we can rest soon. Is anyone too messed up to drive any further? Over.”
Everyone responded that they were fine and the convoy kept driving.
After a little over an hour, they came out of the hills. The highway they were on ran on in a straight line into the distance.
The scenery slowly changed from woods to open fields that had been worked not that long ago. Farm machinery started appearing here and there.
Susan came online at that point. “Susie here. Jimmy and I were talking. We both come from farming country. Farm equipment is big and expensive; farmers try to take care of it. We wouldn’t be seeing so much of it sitting outside just abandoned in fields. That starts to rust. Most bigger farms would at least have covered areas that they could keep the worst of the elements off of it. Whatever happened must have been kinda fast or the locals would have parked their equipment. The other thing we noticed is that the farms are getting bigger. We should be coming up on larger buildings soon, like barns or maybe some warehouses. They maybe have centralized collection points for all the crops. Most cities don’t want the congestion of heavy truck traffic, so if they are older and Freetdorf has been around for a while, we MAY find something like that to hole up in.”
There were several clicks on the radio and then the sound of voices arguing before a female voice came over the channel. “This is Tracy and I have to go pee. Before anyone says anything, I have been holding it but I can’t any longer.”
“This is Caisson. Small farmhouse on the left, maybe half a K. Right by the road is a small shed. We can clear that fast and everyone can take a quick break. Over.”
“Wagner. Okay, let’s do it. Caisson, Vajjer, and Tocker will use shotguns and sweep the shack, then stand guard. Keep the vehicles running and everyone stays in and sealed up. Over.”
The convoy pulled off to the side and the three soldiers quickly swept the small shack and setup so they could watch the surrounding area for movement. Anyone who needed to go or thought they did went over, ducked inside, and did their business quickly before moving back to the vehicles.
Vajjer looked at Caisson. “So why did you go along with this stop so easily? We should have been able to make it to some place besides this shack before stopping for the night.”
Caisson snorted. “I have just spent too much of my life listening to the princess whine about everything. Better we stop now and give me a break from her before I throw her out a window or just tie her up and gag her.”
Corporal Vajjer started laughing and couldn’t stop. As they headed back to the vehicles, he kept laughing while most of the others stared at him.
The convoy carried on and started moving through gently rolling hills. As they drove, they saw very few cars on the side of the road and only twice passed zombies that looked like they had been put down.
They came to the top of a larger hill and in the distance, they could see the city. It was later in the afternoon and the sun was still bright. The day was as hot as ever. The lead vehicle stopped in the middle of the road and the passengers unloaded, looking at the road ahead of them. Caisson brought a pair of binoculars to his face and looked at something in the distance.
The sergeant looked back and waved his arms. His voice came over the radio a second later. “Caisson. You are going to want to stop and look at this.”
Everyone got out of their vehicles, which they left running, and moved forward. They all collected at the top of the rise. Everyone came out armed, mostly with rifles, except for Tracy, who just stood there hugging herself and looking angry.
Wagner had a pistol holstered at his waist, as did Vajjer. Sam and Susie both carried shotguns.
As they gathered, they could see the highway stretching away before them. Open fields on all sides. In the distance was a farmhouse with some outbuildings and a large red barn. Hanging low on the horizon was a large, dark cloud in an otherwise perfect sky.
Steve squinted as he looked. “What is that cloud?”
Caisson handed him the binoculars without a word.
Steve brought them up and looked at the cloud. It was hard to make out, but there were buildings in the distan
ce and the cloud looked much darker. He brought the glasses down and looked around. “Is the city burning?”
Caisson shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. There are survivors there and some sort of government hold outs. We head there. The smoke itself doesn’t look that bad. Whatever caused it is mostly burned out.”
Wagner nodded. “We have a destination that is too far away for today. We also have a really big farm up ahead that we could use as a place to rest up for the night. Then we push on in the morning.”
Tracy started talking. “We could push on to the city today and be there in just a few hours. It’s still daylight and we could find the other survivors and maybe they are fixing this…”
The Warrant shook his head. “We are not pushing ahead. We are only travelling during the day when we have good light and can see what is coming at us. Is anyone feeling messed up? Like they haven’t slept for a long time and everything hurts?”
He looked around and everyone was nodding. He sighed. “I don’t know what we went through that first night, but everything from then and the following day is almost blurry. We are going to shack up some place and get some rest. Tomorrow, we hit the city and join up with whoever is there. Then maybe we can get some real sleep and think things through. Plus, Steve has to update us on what he found out. Let’s mount up and ride.”
Everyone headed back to their vehicles. Tracy stood with her fists clenched at her sides, glaring at Wagner as he walked to his truck.
Susie stopped next to her. “Tracy, we have to go. Everyone has to stay together here so we can get through this. What is your problem?”
Tracy turned her glare on Susie. “My problem is that these soldiers come along and take over everything. They start killing these infected people and dragging us all over! They didn’t even try to tie up or help those infected at the last building! They didn’t stop Neil from shooting himself! Who do they think they are? We don’t need soldiers! We need aid workers and help!”
Susie just looked at Tracy and blinked slowly several times. Then, without saying a word, she turned and walked back to the military truck and climbed in, closing the door after her. Jimmy looked at her. “What did Tracy do or say now?”
Susie shook her head. “I think her brain is dead after whatever happened to get us all here in this zombie land. She’s lost it.”
Up ahead, Tracy turned and trudged to the vehicle, where she got in and slammed the door shut.
The lead vehicle slowly drove away, followed by the rest. As the vehicles crossed the rise, they headed toward the distant farmhouse and possible salvation.
Far behind them, shuffling along the highway and through the hills, the zombie horde slowly marched on. There were well over a thousand in the main mass. They stayed on the main highway, not stopping for food or rest. Step after step, they advanced. Unthinking. No longer human, they were like a force of nature that had been unleashed. The ones that had gotten them moving were ahead of them somewhere. Eventually, they would catch up.
END
Zombie Transference
Book Two: The City
A Look Ahead
What is to come. Our brave party is going to continue heading for the sanctuary that they have heard about. When they finally arrive they will find that the military still has a collection point established and is getting ready to pull out. Before they can depart though they are going to have to sort out some of the issues that the garrison unit is having.
When you are stuck in the middle of a zombie apocalypse and no one else knows or believes in the dead walking, what do you do? Survive.
Authors Notes
I just want to say thank you to everyone for reading this. The question that I had from some early readers was: why? Zombies have been done to death.
Either the people in book either know about zombies or they don’t.
Well in this book we get to see the old zombie movie version where no one knows or believes in zombies. Also people tend to be a bit, well, not very smart or let me say scientific. So everyone knows how these stories end up working out. By the time the defenders figure out that the enemy is a zombie that needs brain destroying the tipping point has been hit and civilization is pretty much over.
What would happen if a group of people from our world at a party or in class, maybe even stopping at a service centre on the highway late at night for a coffee. What would happen if you and I were picked up and shifted to a new world in the middle of a zombie apocalypse?
The first thing most young guys would do when they realized that they were in a zombie movie would be to grab weapons and accept it. Especially if the first person you see is missing an arm and slowly rotting away while walking toward you.
How we would deal with what we saw, (PTSD would most assuredly happen later at some point), would be very different from the movies.
If you have ever planned out surviving a ZA then you start to realize, “Hey I need a LOT of food, water, fuel, ammo, weapons, not to mention a warehouse of all the other equipment that would be required to survive and then sort of thrive.
So this story told me to write it. I sat down and it just came out on the computer with no arguing. I did cheat in that I gave the civvies some military personnel. I further cheated by making them support trades mostly.
If you have any questions or doubts because some of the characters appear stereotypical? Well, let’s just say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. Everyone wears a bit of a mask when they first meet people.
Too many characters was another comment from a few people. Well not everyone survives or even stays with the main group. Working on that character development now. Unfortunately I find just a few characters are really stepping up. I just hope none of them are wearing red shirts. Book 2 is almost finished as of my writing this note. Book 3 and 4 are templated and will be getting written up soon. I hope to have released the last book by end 2017.
Time to go, I have to stand watch on the wall as the horde is getting anxious. They see too much light and get more active you know.
So I hope you enjoyed it and I would love to hear feedback.
Take care and keep your firearms loaded, machetes sharp, blunt objects blunt and always wear PPE when you are going zombie smashing. Remember! Work in fire teams and forget that lone warrior crap! Fastest way to end up dead for most of us.
If you would like to check out what Tom is working on in novels and series check here:
www.tgermann-sf-guy.com
If you subscribe to the mailing list, you will receive new release announcements and access to other advance promotions. Click this link to be taken to the sign up page:
http://eepurl.com/bYnxvD
