“Do we actually need anything that bad,” asked Briana, “anything we can’t find in the forest or Hemingford?”
“Some books,” said Dean.
We all looked at him, except for Lizzy who moved to drop another zombie. There were more coming, but they were few and far between. We were too distant for the bulk to have noticed us.
“What sorts?” I asked. This hadn’t come up before.
“Cabin work. I can do normal carpentry all day long, but there are guides that give detailed information about working with logs. I don’t really need them, but they’ll help big time with weatherproofing and comfort.”
“Where would we even look?” asked Briana.
He smiled, with teeth not quite as straight or white as my sweetie’s. “There’s a bookshop we can get to, I think. I stopped there before. They had books on that sort of thing, mostly for tourists, but they’ll still work. I’ve flipped through them. They’re the real deal.”
“Books?” declared Lizzy. “I was thinking guns or food when I mentioned looting. Grabbing a rifle or a few cans of whatever is easy, but you’re talking about specific items. You have to find the right rack, the correct shelf, the exact books you want. Can you do that fast?”
“I know exactly where they are,” replied Dean, confidently.
“If we do a fast in and out to grab them, it might be doable,” I said. “Where’s this store located?”
“Fast in and outs are for lunch time, in bed,” stated Lizzy. “Trying to run while looting is asking to fall on your ass and get bitten.”
“Is there something you aren’t telling Lois?” asked Briana.
“What are you talking about?” The short woman was glaring at her friend, thinking, rightfully so, that she’d just opened herself up.
“Well Lizzy, the two of you aren’t equipped for an in and out.”
Mary broke into laughter, her older sister looking somewhere between horrified and embarrassed, mostly horrified.
“If you’re implying I’d cheat with some guy…”
“Or a turkey baster,” finished Briana.
I joined in the laughter – couldn’t help myself – while Dean and Alec looked on, totally confused. We’d let them in on the joke later, maybe.
“Zombie,” said Briana.
Lizzy, her face a dark purple, cursed and spun about to bash its head in. Then she wheeled back toward Briana. “My point is that we should either loot properly or not at all!”
“You just said you thought we could do a quick snatch of some canned food.”
“Briana...” Lizzy was seething. “...do not point out my contradictions!”
“Enough with the fun and happiness and being pissed off,” I interrupted. “Everybody get a grip. Now Dean, where is the store exactly?”
The building turned out to be near the edge of town – otherwise the idea would have been nixed immediately – but the directions were confusing enough that Dean would be leading the way. We’d get there and attempt to quickly recover the books and run. It was going to be more dangerous than we liked but seemed worth the risk.
* * *
Using back roads, and sometimes driving over dirt, we approached Chadron from the west, well away from the forest. Once positioned, we began honking our horns to get as many of the zombies moving toward us as possible. Then we drove off, slowly enough for them to follow. With the mass of undead safely, if only temporarily, repositioned a couple miles from the town, we zipped around with Alec in front.
Reaching the bookstore, Dean hopped out of the passenger seat and hurried for the door. Lois was driving the Grand Cherokee and Briana the Wrangler. This allowed Lizzy and I to quickly get into the street as well. I promptly fired at a zombie, missing. The thing was only twelve feet away. They don’t dodge or duck, nothing. Pathetic. My second bullet took it in the head.
“Door’s locked!” shouted Dean.
I glanced up and down the street. There were dozens of the monsters coming and plenty more in sight further back. We messed up. We acted too quickly and didn’t lure nearly enough away. Hell, the size of the town made that next to impossible, no matter how we planned it. What a cluster.
“Shoot it,” I ordered.
Lizzy opened fire with her .45, shattering the lock, and a good kick forced the door open.
“Get your books!” she yelled. “Hurry!”
Dean ran inside and promptly screamed. Lizzy and I turned toward the door at the same time.
“Keep this spot clear,” I said. “I’ll get him.”
Alec revved the engine. “We can’t stay long,” he called. “More are coming!”
Lizzy began shooting. Briana opened the driver’s door of the Jeep and popped off a few rounds of her own. It helped, but there were just too many, and they were coming from all directions.
I ducked inside. Only seconds had passed since Dean screamed, which was just as well. I found him on the floor grappling with a zombie, one that outweighed him by a good fifty pounds. I shot the monster in the side of the head, sending a stream of brains and flesh into a stand of month old fashion magazines.
“Up,” I said, extending a hand, “and get your gun.”
He muttered his thanks and retrieved the pistol. Then he moved toward the back. Outside, I could hear Lizzy cursing.
“We are out of time Dean. Grab the books. We have to go.”
He snagged several off a rack on the far wall, next to an open door, and ran back the way we’d come. I preceded him and began to fire at the zombies closing around Lizzy. It took both of us to clear enough space that we might get into the vehicles without being grabbed. Oh yeah, we did real good with this plan. One of our best, without a doubt.
I suddenly found myself back in the Jeep Wrangler, unharmed, and was locking the door as Briana shifted into reverse. A quick glance outside assured me the others were inside theirs as well. She rushed backwards looking for a place to turn around. There was no way we’d be able to escape going forward. That direction was now a wall of corpses.
Then she hit a zombie as she spun the wheel. If not for my racing heart, and the several hundred shamblers that were closing on us, I would have made a comment about getting zombie blood and possibly innards on my Jeep. Besides, running them down was just asking to smash in the engine or to lose control and crash.
As it was, Alec almost did wreck, though not due to a collision with one of the reanimated. He managed an impressive spin, getting the pickup turned around and facing the correct direction faster than either Briana or Lois, but he bounced against a curb and clipped a fire hydrant, knocking it loose. There was no longer any water pressure, and nothing came out, but that was still a heavy chunk of steel. It left a good sized dent in the truck and shattered a headlight, but at least the pickup remained operable.
After a hundred yards, we slowed down, trying to determine the fastest and easiest route out of Chadron. Then Lois stopped, and Lizzy hopped out of the passenger door of the Grand Cherokee, darting around the hood to get into the driver’s seat. Lois slid over inside so her girlfriend could drive. It was not the best time for such a maneuver, yet Lizzy was by far the more capable driver.
“Stop the Jeep.”
The moment Briana did so, with Alec following suit behind us, I got out and held up the radio. “We have to change directions,” I said into it. I pointed frantically at a nearby alley. There was lots of debris, ordinary trash mostly, but we could easily push past that. “We’re going that way.”
Those zombies initially led away were returning en masse on the road ahead of us. They were still pretty far back, but, even so, I didn’t think we could get past them before the route was completely blocked. Damn. Damn. Damn. Then I was back inside the Jeep, and Briana roared down the alley and turned onto a different street. She took another turn, and we saw an open path out of town. Finally.
“Don’t leave us!” crackled someone over the radio.
“What?” I asked, speaking into ours. I could see Lizzy and Al
ec behind us. No one was being left behind.
“Not me,” said Lizzy.
“Give Lois the radio when you’re driving!” I demanded. “You can’t do both!”
“Not us either,” said Dean.
“We need help!” came the message again. “Can you hear us?”
“Slow down,” I told Briana.
We were in the clear.
“Who is this?” I asked.
“You can hear us! We didn’t know if we had the right channel.”
“Who are you?” I interrupted, “and where?”
“We’re stuck in the town, in Chadron. We can’t get out. Please help.” The voice belonged to a young man, maybe a teenager.
“Okay,” I said. “We won’t abandon you, but we need to move to the outskirts and stop somewhere safe to get sorted out. You have a range long enough to keep in touch?”
“Think so.
“All right then. Hang on. Dean, Lois, all of you good?”
“Good,” confirmed Dean.
“We’re good too,” said Lois, “a bit rattled though, and Lizzy wants her radio back.”
“No radio for Lizzy at times when both hands are needed on the steering wheel. Hit her in the head if she bitches. Now, let’s get out of here and park so we can figure out what’s going on.”
* * *
It turned out there were seven survivors holed up in a two story, concrete building. The bottom floor contained a restaurant and the top a pair of apartments. These could be reached through a stairwell that exited into the street or by a spiral staircase leading down to the rear of the restaurant. The entire building was owned by a single family who lived above their place of business.
Originally there had been twelve of them. The owner, his wife, and three others had perished, four from bites, with the fifth committing suicide. Making matters worse, the lower floor had been overrun. The zombies had broken through the restaurant’s plate glass windows. The survivors managed to barricade and then board over the interior staircase, and the other exit was securely locked. Unfortunately, most of their supplies had been in the restaurant’s storage room. They were now nearly out of food and water.
They had an old style police radio and used it to call for help, but there’d been no replies since the first day. Eventually, the group gave up trying, until they heard the shooting. One person went up on the roof to see what was going on and spotted Lizzy and me. He claims he shouted and screamed trying to get our attention, but we never heard him. Then he saw the radio in my hand. Rushing inside, he retrieved theirs and started calling out desperately, going from channel to channel.
“We can get you,” I said, “but we have limited space. Most of you are going to be riding in the back of the pickup. Actually, when we get you, all of you will jump in and hang on until we’re out of Chadron. Do you have any injuries that would make this impossible?”
“We’re not at our best,” said Eric. He was standing on the roof. “But we can do that at least.”
“I’m going to turn this over to Briana. Hang on.”
“Hello Eric,” she said, after I handed her the radio.
“Greetings. We are so glad to see you guys.”
I could see him in the distance through my binoculars. Lizzy was busy stalking about, cracking the skull of any zombie that came too close with Dean assisting. Alec, Lois, and Mary were keeping watch. As infested as Chadron was, they found no shortage of the monsters.
“Ask him to move and point at the door they’ll exit from,” I said.
Briana did so, and I watched as Eric gestured. It was on a wide thoroughfare, closer to the edge of town than the bookstore had been.
“Thirty minutes, if they can be ready by then. They need to pack up anything important, small bundles only or it’s going to be left behind, and get down the stairs and be by that door. When we arrive, they open it, load up, and we boogie.”
Briana relayed this as well. They understood and said they would be ready. We planned on leading the zombies away again, with some alterations. Lizzy would drive about to distract them, but she would keep going so they wouldn’t promptly turn around and return. I would then go in with Dean and Alec following. After we retrieved the others, everyone would head north, away from the national forest. Rejoining Lizzy, we’d carefully circle back and go home.
* * *
“You ready for this?” I asked.
“Oh, yeah. I owe the fuckers. Almost got bit back there.”
“You’re going to distract them, not hunt them,” I said sternly.
She glared at me defiantly.
“I mean it Lizzy. No stopping to bash a few. Get them far, far away. We’re on a rescue here, remember?”
“We’ll just distract them,” said Lois. “Then we’ll meet up. Right, Lizzy?”
She grumbled an affirmative.
“Go for it then, and try not to blow a tire.”
Lois paled but didn’t say anything. It probably wasn’t the best remark I could make, and I was beginning to think my sense of humor was more morbid than it should be.
We watched them head off, and Lizzy slowed as she neared Chadron’s outer edges. She began to honk the horn and even shot a zombie from the window. That certainly helped get their attention, but she only did it one time. Most likely all their ears were ringing. It worked though. A mob was following.
“Time for us,” I said.
We drove down the road, back into this shithole of a town – it used to be quite nice before the apocalypse – making for the restaurant. As we approached, Eric said that they were moving and to radio when we wanted the door opened. It had no peephole so they wouldn’t be able to see us. He then vanished from the rooftop.
I stopped just past the steel door and nodded at Briana.
“We’re here,” she said. “Come on out.”
True to their word, they pulled it open and stumbled outside. The group was not in good shape, looking even more dehydrated and famished than Miranda, something I hadn’t thought possible. Was it going to be like this for the holdouts everywhere, trapped and starving? It was a depressing thought.
Dean moved to help them, and Briana and I hopped out ready to shoot any zombies. The ones we saw were far enough away that we had everyone loaded and were moving before that became necessary. Thank God. I then led the way out, moving slowly to ensure Alec, who was following, kept his speed down. That pickup was way overloaded. One good bump and somebody was going to be road splat.
* * *
We rejoined Lizzy and the others fifteen minutes later. Taking a rural road, we accelerated, quickly leaving the town and its mass of horrid horrors behind.
“Stop,” ordered Briana, without warning.
I did so immediately.
“What’s up?” asked Lizzy.
Briana radioed back. “A house to the side of the road, the green one. The sign in the window says alive inside.”
“Think more survivors?” asked Dean.
“Maybe,” she replied. “We should take a look. We’re pretty far out now, and I don’t see any zombies.”
I cut the engine and got out of the Jeep to look around. It seemed clear, and we were in an open area with an unobstructed line of sight in all directions.
“We want to check out this house,” I said, approaching our new friends, many of whom seemed apprehensive. “There’s a sign in the window saying alive inside which might mean someone’s in there, but unlikely after all this time.”
Eric looked at the others. “We don’t mind. I mean, we don’t want to be leaving anyone behind, not ever, but do you mind if we wait here while you do it? It’s not that we’re…”
I cut him off. “None of you are in any condition to be running about.” That was certainly true. “Lois, Mary, why don’t you give them some water and something to eat.”
Their heads picked up at that.
“I don’t think this’ll take long.” If anyone was inside, he would have likely called out by now. “Mary, keep an eye ou
t too.”
Lizzy and Briana went with me to check the house. We followed our normal system of opening the door – it was locked, so we kicked it in – and yelling for any zombies to come on out so we could shoot them. Or, as Lizzy said this time, “Come get juicy bits of Briana meat.” Briana slapped her across the back of the head in retaliation. Nothing appeared, and Lizzy and I went inside. Briana followed and took up a position in the living room. The house was small, only three bedrooms, and totally empty.
“Back door was open,” said Lizzy. “I went ahead and closed and locked it. Kitchen is a mess. Animals had been at some of the stuff.” She shook her head. “Wasteful, with lots trashed, but we might as well loot what’s still edible.”
“I’ll let the others know. Oh, see if there are any clean clothes. The newcomers are going to be needing some.”
“I’ll start on those,” said Briana, “if Lizzy wants to work on the kitchen.”
“That’s fine with me, since I’m sure you’ve been on the lookout for crotchless panties, see through lingerie, maybe edible underwear.”
“I… Whatever.” Briana headed for the bedrooms.
I darted outside to let the others know what we were doing. “It’s empty, but we’re going to grab any food we find, along with the clothes. We’ll stuff it all in the back seat of the Grand Cherokee with Mary.” I pointed to her, and she waved back. “It’s not as efficient as we normally work, so no thinking poorly of us, but there’s ample room, and I’d like to get all of you back to our camp quickly. We still have plenty of daylight, but I’m sure you’d rather not be so exposed.”
“We’re fine,” said Eric, “and none of us have a problem sitting around. We’ve been doing little else for a month.”
“Toothbrushes would be nice,” added a woman with fiery red hair.
“Yeah,” agreed Eric. “The apartments were pretty bare.”
“We hit some stores previously. We are full up on all sorts of personal hygiene toiletry stuff, and we have plenty of food at our camp.”
Surviving The Zombie Apocalypse (Book 1): Sanctuary Page 29
