Zombie Dawn
Page 9
That night, we all slept and no one stood watch. We were devastated, exhausted, and depressed. We’d all lost loved ones and it was clear how difficult life was going to be from now on. Maybe we just didn’t care anymore. We got lucky. It was a very quiet night.
In the morning, Kate had improved a bit. Some color had returned to her face and she got some soup and some water down. I decided that I had to do something to truly protect her and the kids. Life wouldn’t be worth living without them. I told her how much I loved her about a hundred times, until she told me to go bother someone else.
The group sat around trying to figure out what had happened. I started with my story. I left out some details about Mariana and Santos; just not ready to get into that yet.
Mike told us that his perch on the attic was safe. He’d had good shots the entire time and had run through all of his ammo. He was so busy shooting that he hadn’t seen too much.
Stan told us what had happened to Wes. “We seemed to have it under control when they just started pouring through the gap. Wes raced down and grabbed the truck. I had to shoot as fast as I could, which only drew more. Wes came screaming down the road, ran over a bunch that just about had me, and slammed the truck into the Civic, sealing the gap. He set the brake and opened his window to yell out to me. One of the fast ones, really fast, jumped into the window and bit him on the face. Wes killed it and a bunch more, and then killed himself. I think he knew I couldn’t do it. I ran back down here and got up in Wes’ perch in the tree. I saw your kids and Tyler walking around out front and brought them up there with me. There were plenty of good spots on the tree and I wanted them safe.”
“When the zombies came, we all did our best. Mike was dropping them left and right. We all were. But there were too many. They got through the fence and filled up the trench. They hit the fence so hard that only three of the Claymores went off. Once they filled up the trench, the rest could walk right over them. They stormed all around the house and garage. All the trenches filled up. I told the kids to stay put and keep shooting and when I saw a gap, I jumped down and ran around back to check on Marj.”
Mike spoke up. “Yeah, I saw you do that. I did my best to cover you. That’s when they attacked the garage. I heard Rich yell and Carol and Jamie were screaming. There was nothing I could do. The garage went fast.”
Marj chimed in. “The back yard was also a weak spot.” She described how her area had been overrun and how getting up high was the key to her survival.
As the stories went on, it became clear that a typical house like mine simply couldn’t be defended against a huge mob. We needed high spots, ladders, deep trenches, fences and walls, and natural barriers to protect us. Assuming that the zombie horde attacks would continue, we needed to find an entirely new spot. It had to have running water, good visibility, and privacy.
To avoid horde attacks, we’d have to continually eradicate zombies over a wide area, and then isolate the area with some type of barriers. To handle hordes if and when they did appear, we needed something like the bridge or a cliff to herd them over. There simply wasn’t enough ammunition to kill them all. We also needed to stay away from highways and roads that we couldn’t block.
So our survival strategy had to include defense, isolation, and eradication. Mike called it the "DIE" plan. Kind of funny, in a way.
We spent the entire day talking and resting. We ate MRE’s and sat around. Around 5:30 in the evening, we heard a noise outside. It was Steve. Bobbie yelled “Steve’s here!” and was about to open the door when Mike told her to stop. He went out with his 9 and, when Steve refused to respond to his greetings, Mike ended him. We knew that he had been infected. It was interesting that he’d found us over here and we needed to consider whether the zombies had some type of residual memory.
That night we set up a watch but it was quiet. The next day we decided to work on a plan to get us through the winter.
Chapter Twelve: Moving Out
It was already September 11 and the winter would be coming soon. We didn’t really have time that day to remember the victims of the cowardly terrorist attack on September 11, 2001. We had our own problems. We did wonder a bit about whose fault this might have been and some did wonder about Muslim terrorists. Pointless, and we knew it.
Stan spoke up: “Forget about that. We need a ‘fort,’ tons of food and water, weapons, and a heat source and we need it soon. It can’t be a regular house. We’re going to have to travel to find the right place.”
We all agreed to move. We needed at least three vehicles. Four wheel drive trucks with four doors would be perfect. We were thinking about how to do that, with all kinds of different schemes, when Kate spoke up from the corner. “Just go to Smitty’s Ford in town. You can take whatever you want. It’s all free now.” She was crying while she said it. It was no good that stuff was free and we’d have gone back to the old ways in a second.
Stan, Christina and I decided to take a trip into town. I figured that town might be okay since the horde was pretty much gone. We loaded up with weapons and water only and took mountain bikes into town.
Our first stop was Smitty’s. It was empty except for two salesmen who had been trapped inside. We took care of them without discussion or thought. We went to the manager’s office and located the keyboard. Then, we shopped the lot. We chose two big black Expeditions and a black F-250 pickup with four doors. All had trailer hitches and were heavy duty vehicles. We found two cargo platforms that mounted on the hitches and installed them on an Expedition and on the pickup. Stan found a plow for the truck and mounted it since the truck was prepped for it. We found a bike rack and mounted that on the other Expedition. We found roof top cargo carriers and mounted one on each Expedition.
We secured Smitty’s, threw the bikes on the rack, and headed next door to Ace Hardware. We quickly cleared the store of its occupants—three former salesmen and the store manager—and scanned the store for supplies. They had done an excellent job of securing the store; the shelves were untouched. I wondered if anyone would have survived if they’d let people in to get stuff they could have used.
We concentrated on true necessities—matches, lighters, gasoline cans, barbed wire, a roll of chain link fence, hand tools, and some screws and nails. They had hand pumps that we could use for gas or water, so we grabbed those. We grabbed three big red tool boxes to use for First Aid boxes. We took jumper cables and hand tools and 3 Honda generators.
We had decided to install wire fencing over the windows of the cars as a safety measure so we did it right there. We covered the windshields with chain link, which we mounted on 2 by 4’s that we screwed to the side posts; that way, the wipers would still work. We covered the large rear windows on the Expeditions with chain link and chicken wire. We screwed pieces of chain link over the rear windows as well. Finally, we did the rest of the windows. We’d thought about leaving them unprotected, for escape, but we figured that we’d be able to still operate the doors to escape.
Stan found a good-sized landscape trailer parked out back. We decided to use it, load it up with as much stuff as we could, and then figure out back at the house if we’d need it. We took the bike rack off and hitched the trailer to an Expedition. Stan drove over to Smitty’s and took 4 spare wheels mounted with tires off an F-250 and put them in the trailer. They’d fit all of the new vehicles.
There was a Radio Shack next door to the Ace. It was empty of people and had been trashed but the storeroom was still locked and full of goodies. Christina and I took CB radios for the cars and a bunch of hand held CBs plus all the batteries we could find. We grabbed Garmin GPS units. We also grabbed a base CB for use at our eventual home. That was it for Radio Shack. They didn’t have any shortwave radios.
It was well past noon so we decided to start heading home. We made one more stop, at a small convenience store, and loaded up all of the bottled water they had. The freezers were still on so we emptied out the ice cream and headed home. On the way, we filled up the gas tan
ks and the spares. It was weird, because the pumps were still on, and I had to use my credit card. I wasn’t worried about paying the bill, though.
Mike and Jake had been inventorying while we were gone. We decided that for guns, from now on we’d focus on .223 caliber, .22 caliber, .45 handguns and 12 gauge shotguns. We had plenty of ammo for those and we figured it would be easy to find more. Those were popular calibers and it was more convenient to be able to swap ammo and magazines as necessary. We had the 4 Ithacas and the 4 M4s from the Snows and we had plenty of ammo for them. I had the Mini and that was in .223 so that was good. We had a bunch of .22 rifles and my .22 pistol and 2 .45s. I had my 12 gauge as well.
The next morning, Stan went out and found the .50 cal and recovered it and the unused Claymores. He mounted the .50 in the back of the pickup truck and covered it with a tarp. We only had a few cans of ammo for it but figured we could find more. We had about a case of grenades and divided them among the cars.
Mike stowed the rest of the guns in Dad’s basement. Maybe we’d come back and need them, or maybe some other survivors could use them. He loaded them all into a trunk, along with the ammo, all cleaned and oiled and wrapped nicely in rags and plastic bags.
Tyler, Cody and Christina packed all of the food we could carry into the Expeditions and Bobbie and Sean packed cases of MREs into the back of the pickup. Jake mounted ladders on the pickup’s ladder racks and to the side of the pickup. He even ran one across the back on top of the tailgate. They acted as a roof and walls, and we could shoot through them. It was a good setup, and we knew we’d need the ladders later. We packed every other ladder that we could find in the neighborhood in the trailer, along with hand tools, more food and ammo, and a bunch of other junk. We had a total of 4 generators and a bunch of fuel cans as well.
It took the entire day to pack, unpack, and repack until we were pretty well loaded up. Clothes went in the cargo carriers on top. We parked the backhoe in the back yard and generally cleaned up. Finally, we called it a day, went inside, and got some sleep.
The next morning, we shoved off at 5:00 a.m. I went over in the morning and lit my house up. I felt no emotion as I did it. My true home was with my wife and kids, wherever they were.
We had a bunch of stops to make. We decided that I would drive the pickup, with Mike riding shotgun and Bobbie and Sean in the back. Molly would ride with us. Kate would drive the Expedition with the trailer. She had Jake riding shotgun and Tyler and Julie in the back with Shithead. Stan would drive the other Expedition. Marj would ride shotgun and Cody would sit in back. Christina was a crack shot, so we created a comfortable spot for her to lie in the back of the cargo area and check our rear. We told her not to shoot except in an emergency, and to warn us before she did.
The CB radios worked great and we agreed that channel 4 would be primary and channel 9 would be backup.
Stan knew a guy who was a gun dealer and had a small shop on the outskirts of town. That was our first stop. We wanted to stock up on ammo and see what we could find. To our surprise, Tom was alive and well barricaded in his shop along with his wife and two sons. Stan invited them to come along, but they decided to stay. “We’re going to ride it out here,” he said. “I haven’t seen many of them since the day they swarmed.”
“Jack here took care of most of them, and we got the rest,” Stan said proudly. “Do you think it’s safe around here? We figure that it’s okay for now, but that more hordes might come along anytime, since we’re so close to the highway here.”
“I know,” replied Tom. “We’re planning on barricading the highway at that narrow point right by Route 140. We’ll blow the temporary bridge and barricade the rest of the roads in and out of town.” He showed us a topographical map of town. He’d clearly been thinking carefully about this and had a pretty good plan. Our group had considered doing the same but we had made a definitive decision to stay away from major highways. Those hordes had a way of defeating barricades. We had learned that the hard way.
“Are there other survivors?”
“I’ve heard some chatter on the radio but we’re not sure.” Tom replied. “I sure hope so. I heard someone talking about the full moon on the radio. They said the full moon had something to do with the horde. Who knows?”
I counted back and realized that the horde had happened the day after a full moon. Decided to ponder that one for awhile.
“Good luck,” I told him. “Do you have any guns or ammo that you’d be willing to part with before we go?”
“What do you need?”
Stan told him. Tom said that he’d like to hold on to what he had, for the most part, but was willing to trade. We traded him three cases of MREs for two cases of .22 ammo and we also swapped out six different .22 rifles for 4 Ruger 10/22 .22 rifles and 16 magazines. We gave the new .22s to Sean, Bobbie, Tyler and Cody and they were ecstatic. We traded him two 9 millimeter pistols for 4 used Smith & Wesson 22A .22 pistols and a dozen magazines. I traded Tom a bagful of gold and jewelry for a case of .223 ammo, a thousand rounds, and four extra magazines for my Mini. Tom wouldn’t give up any of his .45 ammo or guns.
We were all happy with our trades, agreed to stay in touch on the CBs and via shortwave, and said our goodbyes.
Our next stop was the bridge. I wanted to set it up as a zombie trap and Stan and Marj wanted to say goodbye to Stan, Jr. While they did that, I tied a bunch of bottles and cans up with fishing line, filled them partway with pebbles and broken glass, and lowered them from the superstructure. It was windy up there and the cans knocked together, making a good amount of noise. I hoped that zombies would be attracted by the sound from time to time and fall off the drop. Maybe we’d never know, but I thought it might help.
Chapter Thirteen: Bill and Nancy
The next stop was to check on Tyler and Cody’s mom and dad. Bill and Nancy had planned to go to the Cape, but were known from time to time to enjoy a weekend at home without the kids. We simply couldn’t leave without checking on them. Their neighborhood was not far from mine, just off Chestnut Street. It had been obliterated by the horde. Cars were strewn across yards and the road, several houses had burned, and it was a mess. There was a barricade built out of cars and fence parts and there were a lot of dead zombies, so clearly someone had made a last stand there. Nothing was moving then, though.
We went to Tyler and Cody’s house. Their parents, Bill, Jr. and Nancy, lived in a nice colonial at the end of the road. It was trashed. We looked around carefully, and Tyler and Cody yelled loudly for their parents. Just when we were about to give up, we heard a sound from the side yard. Something was moving. It turned out to be the cover to the septic tank. Bill and Nancy had hidden down there and had survived. We helped them out of the tank and hosed them off. They were filthy, starved, crying and laughing. So were Tyler and Cody. We had to douse them all with a hose. They went into their house, changed clothes, packed up a few things, and came with us. It was never even discussed.
Bill had a 12 gauge, which we threw in the back until we could clean it. That was it for weapons from their house. He told us that he’d seen a zombie climb up a tree and jump on one his neighbors. We hadn’t seen anything like that, so we asked him about it.
“It was this guy Tom St. Pierre. Big, tall guy, always works out, the rest of us hated him. Vegetarian, organic food, doesn’t drink. Good looking, surgeon, had it all. He was smart, strong, successful, everything. After we got him, we checked him out. He had only one bullet hole, where my neighbor got him between the eyes. No bites or other wounds. We figured he must have turned at the hospital and somehow he retained some speed and some intelligence.“
He came running up, about as fast as a normal person, jumped on the hood of a car and got over it. We all missed him; no one was ready. He saw Freddy over next to a tree looking the other way, jumped up into the tree, and came down on Freddy. Another neighbor, Tim, is a good shot and dropped this guy while he was biting Freddy. I haven’t seen any like that before or since.”
We decided to keep our eyes out for another vehicle so that we’d have room for more survivors and supplies. We remembered that there was a nice black 4 wheel drive cargo van back at Smitty’s so we drove over and picked it up. It had only two seats and the back was wide open.
Christina agreed to drive, since Bill and Nancy were exhausted. We threw a mattress in the back of the van and let them rest. We decided to fill the van with supplies and mount a CB and GPS in it and that we’d actually leave town the next morning. Once again, we got supplies from Ace Hardware and Radio Shack and equipped the van with extra gas tanks and a first aid chest.
Good news. Nancy was a doctor. Actually, a dermatologist—but still a doctor. Stan, Kate and I discussed briefly that she was like gold and needed to be protected at all costs. We remembered that Bill was a plumber. Possibly even better. They were valuable acquisitions to the team, to say the least.
We broke into a large CVS and cleared it of six zombies. Again, it had been barricaded and all of the zombies were wearing CVS shirts and aprons. They had protected the store but been attacked from inside when one or more of them turned.
Nancy told us what supplies to gather and went back to the pharmacy with Stan and Mike as armed escorts. Surprisingly, it was intact, and Nancy was able to get what she wanted. We stocked up on food and water and the kids went crazy with candy and gum and soda. The van was already stuffed to the gills, with no room for the mattress anymore.