Zombie Rules (Book 4): Destiny

by Achord, David

  “Explain why you picked those three particular items.”

  “The hammer is for protection and hammering nails and stuff. The water bottle is so I can carry water around with me, and the lighter is for starting fires and for Aunt Kate and Aunt Kyra to smoke their cigarettes.” Everyone laughed.

  “Alright, good job.”

  “I passed?” Sammy asked. I looked around.

  “Let’s see a show of hands of those who think Sammy passed his first training lesson.” Everyone raised their hand. Sammy grinned proudly as we slapped him on the back.

  I had to drive slowly; we were heavily laden and the roads were rough.

  “Roads are shit,” Josue commented from the back seat.

  “Yeah,” I answered, “Unfortunately, they're not going to get any better either unless we start repaving them ourselves.” I found myself chuckling at the memory of Big Mac driving one of those huge paving machines home one day. Justin glanced at me but didn’t say anything, which was good. Jorge broke me out of my reverie.

  “I have a motorcycle back at the barn in our old house,” he said. “I'd have no problem riding around on these roads."

  “Oh, yeah? What kind?”

  “It’s a Suzuki dirt bike. It’s a two-cycle, so it’s a little loud.”

  “Still, it’d be good to have around, let’s go get it.” I started to make a detour toward their old home, but was stymied by the sudden appearance of over a dozen infected, standing in the road. I stopped suddenly. They were about three hundred yards away, not walking, just standing in a huddled mass in the middle of the roadway. Justin grabbed the binoculars and scanned them over.

  “They’re looking this way,” he says, “but I’m not sure they know what they’re looking at.” He stared at them another ten seconds. “They look terrible, I’m actually seeing exposed portions of their skulls on some of them.”

  “Any kids?” I asked while squinting at them.

  “Maybe one or two, hard to tell without getting any closer.”

  “They’re too far away to catch up to us, but I don’t want to get any closer.” I looked at everyone to see what they had to say.

  “I don’t want to mess with those things, man,” Jorge exclaimed. Sammy, who was sitting beside him, nodded in wide-eyed agreement.

  “No bueno,” Josue added.

  “Yeah, with the truck full of stuff and pulling that tanker, we won’t be able to make a quick getaway.” I shrugged dismissively. “We’ll try for it later then.” I steered the truck toward home.

  “Maria is really sweet,” Kelly said.

  “What did you guys do all day?” I asked. Kelly pointed over at the full clothesline. Judging by the amount of clothing hanging, they’d been doing laundry all day. And I doubted they did them all by hand, so the batteries were probably drained.

  “She’s going to come back tomorrow and pick up all of their clothes.”

  “That’s great,” I replied “How were the kids?”

  “They played together and even napped together. Little Jose really likes Macie. Maybe they’ll get married one day,” she said with a mischievous grin.

  “You never know,” I replied with a chuckle. “Where’s Janet?” I asked.

  “She rode with Sarah to find a bed,” she let out a small sigh. “The woman is a little hard to get along with.”

  “Yeah, that’s for sure. I’ll keep her in line.”

  “Anyway, the girls stopped by.

  “How’re they fitting in over there?” Kelly grinned.

  “Kyra told me Kate and Shooter have their own room now. His real name is Simon, by the way.”

  “Heh, that’s great.” One less mouth to feed, I thought. “What about Kyra?” Kelly shook her head.

  “She can’t stand Cutter. By the way, his real name is Theodore.” I chuckled.

  “Cutter,” I said derisively. "Theodore is a better name than Cutter. Heck, one of the best presidents we ever had was named Theodore.”

  “She doesn’t seem interested in Jorge either. Maybe this rendezvous will bring in some single men who’ll catch her eye,” she added. “Anyway, she has her own room, which she likes, but Tonya micromanages and keeps assigning her latrine duty, which she hates. She’s already said she’d like to move back in with us.”

  “Oh?”

  “Yeah. She said while everyone else is working their asses off, Tonya walks around under the pretense of supervising.” I laughed.

  “That sounds about right.”

  I gave her a rundown of our adventures of the day, Sammy’s little test, and about the finding of the diesel fuel.

  “What are we going to do when we can’t use fuel anymore?” she asked. I shrugged.

  “We’re almost at that point now,” I replied. “That’s why we need more horses. We’re going to need to go back to that golf course soon and round up a dozen or so.” I snapped my fingers. “You know what we’ve been neglecting? Bicycles.” I thought a moment before answering my own question. “We need to round up a dozen or so and spare parts too.”

  “Maybe us women can all go out scavenging in the next day or so while you stay home and watch the kids.” I groaned inwardly. We’d had this conversation before. It always worried me, but I had to admit, Kelly had proven herself. Besides, if Sarah and Ruth went with them I had no worries. I nodded amicably and changed the subject.

  “I’m going to run up to the Riggins house and check on things and then take Sammy home. I won’t be any longer than an hour or so.”

  “Okay, sweetie. The laundry should be dry by the time you get back,” she said with a look. I acknowledged the hint with a grunt.

  “Why don’t you go get the truck ready, Sammy?” Kelly said. “Zach will be out in a second.”

  “What’s up?” I asked when Sammy shut the door.

  “Shooter doesn’t want Sammy around and I think the two sisters feel like they’re being burdened with motherhood.”

  “That’s stupid,” I retorted. “He’s a good kid.”

  “Yeah, I agree. Kyra was kind of implying that maybe Sammy would be better off living here with us.”

  “What do you think?” I asked.

  “You’re a good father figure,” she responded with a small smile. “And besides, he’s an orphan, just like you.” I smiled back.

  “Well, I’ve never considered myself a father figure.” In fact, I always thought someone like Fred was the epitome of a father figure. Rick too, to a lesser extent. Kelly kissed me on the cheek and squeezed my butt as I walked out.

  We found Sarah, Rachel and Janet sitting at a picnic table in back of our old damaged home. There were two dead zombies at their feet.

  “They followed us,” she said simply. I didn’t bother asking the circumstances; they were dead and nobody had been bitten, that’s all that mattered. One of them had a backpack on. I searched it and found a roll of toilet paper stored in a plastic Folgers coffee container and a small, rechargeable flashlight. I tossed them to Sarah.

  “To the victor goes the spoils,” I said with a grin.

  “What does that mean?” Sammy asked.

  “It’s an expression used by a politician a long time ago. It basically means the winner gets the prize.”

  “Oh.”

  “I’ll explain it in more detail one day. In the meantime, let’s clean up Aunt Sarah’s mess.”

  I instructed Sammy how to loop the rope around their ankles and tie it off on the bumper hooks of the truck. The four of us then slowly dragged the corpses over to the sinkhole. I pointed to a tarp covering stuff and held down by rocks.

  “I keep a five gallon can of fuel here and some old tires. Once you get a couple of them burning, they’ll go for hours. Just dump the bodies on top of them and it’ll burn them to a crisp.” I instructed Sammy how to do it and he excitedly lit the pyre with his brand new Bic lighter. We talked as we watched them burn. He was standing close and I guided him backwards as I pointed toward the thick black smoke.

  “Burning r
ubber releases a bunch of toxins, so don’t breathe any of the smoke.” Sammy looked up at me and nodded.

  “I see a lot of darkened bones,” Sarah commented.

  “Yeah, we’ve had a few unwanted visitors over the past couple of years. The first one was Susan Riggins, the woman who originally lived at the big house. The second one was Fred’s little brother, his name was Franklin.” Sarah looked at me questioningly.

  “He’d gotten sick and turned. He killed Fred’s wife and mother-in-law before wandering off. He came up to the old homestead one night. Julie and I managed to kill him and drug him down here the next morning. A few days later, we met Fred. He wanted to give his baby brother a Christian burial. It was hell getting the remains out of there.”

  “I remember Julie telling me about that,” Janet said and looked at me quizzically.

  “Do you miss her?”

  “Every day,” I replied evenly. I expected more, but she had nothing more to say on the matter. We watched the fire in silence for a few minutes.

  “How’d it go with the house hunting?” I asked. Rachel shook her head.

  “Busted water pipes, mold, mildew, dead bodies lying around. We couldn’t find one that suited us. But we found a bed for Janet. And besides…” She looked at Rachel.

  “So, when are you going to move in with Sarah?” I asked Rachel. Sarah looked at me in surprise. Rachel piped up.

  “Have you ever heard this one: what does a lesbian bring on her second date?” she asked. I looked at her and she was smiling mischievously. “A U-Haul, get it?” I laughed while Sarah looked embarrassed.

  “Okay, I understand. Did you ever get the water tanks in the bus filled?”

  “Somewhat,” Sarah responded. “But we’ve used so much I need to refill them again.”

  “Which house did you live in, exactly?” Rachel asked.

  “First it was the old homestead, and then we moved in to the Riggins’ house.” From the look on her face, I felt it necessary to explain.

  “My boss, a man named Rick Sanders, lived in the old homestead. The Riggins lived in the new house. Back when it all started, I moved in with Rick and rode out the shit storm together. He died in his sleep on Christmas night of the first year. Then I started meeting other people, including Janet here and my kids’ mother.” I thought about Janet’s antics at that time and was about to tell them, but decided to hold off.

  “At one point, some chuckleheads became displeased with us. They set Fred’s original house on fire and were about to do the same with the homestead. We were able to stop them before they did, but they’d poured a bunch of gas in it which had soaked into the floorboards and stuff.” My face darkened at the memory. “That’s when we moved into the Riggins. Once we moved in, we made a lot of modifications. We had a generator, well-water, a septic tank, a HAM radio tower, wood-burning stoves, most everything to make it self-sufficient.”

  “Those concrete barricades are a nice touch.”

  “Yeah, those and the barbed wire were for keeping the zombies out. It didn’t help against the Marines though.” I sighed. “It was a nice home, once.”

  “What’s the square footage?” Sarah asked. It was an interesting question. I thought about it as I looked over the landscape, watching for any interlopers.

  “I never measured it out. Let’s see, five bedrooms, three and a half bathrooms, den, kitchen, dining room, plus the basement. I’d guess around four thousand, give or take.”

  “That’s a decent-sized house,” she mused. “Are the well and septic tank still working?” I nodded.

  “As far as I know.”

  “Have you ever thought about rebuilding it?”

  “Many times,” I replied. “But I didn’t see any real need when it was just me and Kelly.” I saw where she was going. “I think Fred’s house is plenty for the two of us and the kids.”

  “I think it would be safer as a whole if more of us lived together under one roof instead of being spread out,” Sarah opined. I looked at her.

  “Like at the school.”

  “Yeah, but I think I understand why you never moved in with them. Between the different personalities and Tonya’s abrasiveness, I could never live there.”

  “Yeah,” I replied. I could never live with that group. “So, what are you thinking?”

  “We should rebuild it, perhaps even make it larger. The old homestead would be easier to rebuild, but the square footage of the foundation is rather small, and the cellar couldn’t hold a great deal. You’re going to need more room.” I must have made a face or something.

  “Think about it. You’ve got five of you living in Fred’s house currently. Rachel and I would like to stay close, so that’s seven people. There are likely to be new arrivals we’d be willing to bring into the fold, and you’re forgetting one very important thing.”

  “What’s that?” I asked.

  “Do you really think a brother and sister will want to share the same bedroom when they become teenagers? Especially with their grandmother? You’re kids aren’t going to be little forever.”

  “You make a good point,” I conceded.

  “I think it could work,” she said and then lowered her voice to almost a whisper.

  “Plus, I think Sammy would be better off living with you and Kelly. You two make better parental figures.” I looked over at Sammy, who had circled around to the far side of the sinkhole and was looking around.

  “He’s a good kid,” Janet said. I nodded in understanding. I got the distinct impression the women got together and hatched a plan to get me convinced Sammy would be better off under my roof. Hell, they didn’t need to go through the motions, I was already on board.

  “I think you should seriously consider it,” Sarah said. “In the meantime, Rachel and I are going to stay in the bus.”

  “Alright, you women have certainly been doing a lot of planning and conspiring. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.”

  “Sarah thinks you have a cute butt too, but she likes mine better,” Rachel said and then giggled at her own joke. Now Sarah was plainly blushing. I rounded up Sammy and the five of us headed back.

  I waited until dinner.

  “Sam, I have a business proposition for you.”

  “You do?” he asked, wide-eyed. I gestured toward Kelly and Janet.

  “We’d like to offer you a job.”

  “What kind of job?”

  “I need an extra farmhand. It’ll be hard work and it will require you to live here full time. You’ll be fed and clothed, and I’ll personally see to it that your training continues.”

  “What kind of work will I be doing?”

  “Everything,” I answered plainly.

  “Will you teach me to hunt?”

  “Yep. I’m going to be teaching you many things, including how to hunt. What do you say, would this interest you?” He nodded his head up and down vigorously. Kelly, and even Janet, were grinning from ear to ear.

  “It’s settled then. After dinner, we’re going to the school and give Aunt Kate and Aunt Kyra the news. I’m not sure they’ll want you to leave, but don’t worry. I’ll explain it to them.”

  “Okay.”

  “Then we’ll get all of your gear and set you up a living area in the den.”

  “But, I don’t have any gear,” he lamented. I gave a somber nod.

  “Well then, I think that’s the first thing we’re going to work on.”

  “He has a grand total of two pairs of underwear,” Kelly said after we’d gone to bed. “And he didn’t know what dental floss was until I showed him.”

  “Yeah, well, we’ll get him squared away in no time. I hope he doesn’t have any cavities.”

  “So, what’s next?” she asked.

  “We’ve got to get ready for the rendezvous.”

  “And then what?”

  “We’re going to need to move into a bigger house. Sarah suggested rebuilding the Riggins home. I think the idea has merit and with Tonya’s input we can build somethin
g bigger and stronger.”

  “It sounds like a lot of work.”

  “It will be. Our only alternative is to move into a preexisting structure that’s already hardened, to an extent. A parking garage is a good example, but the problem with that is we’d be too far away from the farm itself.”

  “So, we rebuild then.” There was a long pause and then Kelly started giggling.

  “What?”

  “Maria said the other day she walked in on Jorge masturbating.”

  “Ohh, T-M-I,” I exclaimed.

  “I sure hope there’re some single women who show up,” I muttered after a minute, which caused Kelly to start giggling again.

  Chapter 29 – Rendezvous Prepping

  “What do you think?” I asked Justin. The two of us were in one of the treehouses. Justin preferred to call them sniper towers, but Sammy called them treehouses and it stuck. Justin jumped up and down, testing the strength of the floor.

  “Sturdy,” he commented.

  “Yeah. It has a good field of fire as well. With the second one on the other side of the church, the shooters will have a good cross projection.”

  “I wish we could have more than two,” Justin commented. I did too, but we didn’t have enough personnel to man them all day and attend to the rendezvous duties as well.

  “Alright, Sammy. Explain why we built these.”

  “They’re to protect our people during the rendezvous in case someone tries anything.” I nodded. I hoped for a more detailed explanation, but it’d have to do. Justin handed him a clipboard with paper and pencil.

  “Alright, Private, draw me a range card,” he ordered. Sammy scrunched up his face anxiously. I fished into my cargo pants and came up with a compass.

  “Start by shooting your azimuths,” I directed and the two of us guided him on how to create a proper range card. After we graded his finished product, the three of us walked back to the church.

  “I’m proud of our work,” Justin said as we stared at them with our binoculars from the church parking lot. “They’re well-camouflaged, if I didn’t know they were there, I’d never spot them.” He glanced at me with a wry grin. “You’d make a decent Marine.”