Jim was going to drive the south dozer with me and my guys as shooters. Jim assigned a five guy crew to the north dozer. They would hide underground until the zombies had passed their end, then mount up and drive the north dozer south.
We decided to look around for an hour or so until things heated up. There was not much to look at because Jim had cleared out the entire area. We did grab a few warm sodas and stale chips as a snack. Mike found an old machete in a garage and stuck it in his pack.
We heard the bells ringing and a few shots. Arthur or Artie called in from time to time to update us. It was looking like a pretty good “crop.”
A while later, Arthur called. “Okay, I think the Chute is filling up pretty well. Let’s do it.”
Jim gave the order, and I heard the north dozer start up around the corner while a tightly packed bunch of zombies, but not a horde, came around the corner towards us. There were at least a thousand of them. At the front were a group of three tall, well preserved ones who moved well. I asked Jim if he’d heard of “Brains” or “Speeders.” He hadn’t heard about “Brains” but knew about the fast ones and had lost a few guys to them. They called them “Wolves” because they were aggressive and moved in packs.
I told him what I’d learned at Jenny’s and from Bill, Jr. and we watched the three through our scopes. They definitely were controlling the group somehow but it was difficult to see how they were doing it. Their heads always turned in unison and the crowd would surge wherever their heads pointed. They were surrounded by a group of large, relatively healthy zombies--“Speeders.”
We radioed back to the north dozer and told them to look out for these smart ones. They called back and told us that they could see something like that towards the back of the pack but weren’t sure. Jim told them to keep an eye out and drop them first if anything unusual happened.
Right about then, it all turned to shit. The plan relied on the Zs staying in the Chute where they could be crushed by the Cats. Instead of cooperating, a bunch of them climbed over the Jersey barriers on the sides and began to spread out while others, led by the Brains, started to push against the Jersey barriers. It looked like they were trying to move them out of the way to escape.
Jim quickly gave the order for the dozers to move and for the shooters to shoot, so we did. Most of the zombies were still trapped in the Chute so we got them. We were able to pick off most of the others with rifles. But at least fifty or a hundred, moving quickly, were able to get back into the tree line. Rather than go in after them, Jim pulled out another of his toys, an M79 grenade launcher, and fired a bunch of high explosive and phosphorus rounds into the woods, which lit right up. Mike’s eyes were the size of softballs. Boy, did he want an M-79. We couldn’t tell how many Jim got, if any, but it was an impressive display. Jim decided that the operation was over for the day.
We parked the dozers, got back into the Hummers, and went to pick up Arthur and Artie. They were not at the meeting spot, so we backtracked a bit. We found their bodies a half mile away. They hadn’t fired a shot, so we figured they had been snuck up on and overwhelmed. They were mostly eaten, badly enough that we didn’t need to end them.
Jim was very upset. “That was the seventh time we’ve run the Chute. It’s worked perfectly every time. I can’t believe they got Arthur and Artie.”
I decided to state the obvious, just in case it wasn’t obvious to everyone. “They seem to be learning. They tried to escape, and they got your guys. They must have some form of residual intelligence. Those assholes at Jenny’s called them Speeders, but they remind me of wolves.”
“Yeah, I guess we’ll need to switch it up next time. I was hoping that we could just pick them off at will, but it looks like the game is on. Did you see that group that got away? It was mostly Brains and those Wolves.”
Mike jumped in. “But you got them all with your M-79, right Uncle Jim?”
“Maybe a few, buddy, but they were moving fast. There’s a stream just through those woods. They could have escaped through there.”
“Well, we need to clear them out before we leave,” I interjected. “They’re smarter, stronger, and better looking than you, Jim.” I was joking, but I was also nervous. If Jim didn’t evolve his techniques, and if we just stayed put close to the highway, I was afraid that a horde would get him, no matter how good his fort was.
Chapter Seventeen: Division
That night, we had a joint meeting. I spoke for my group and Jim spoke for his. It was friendly, and mutually supportive, but also contentious as we knew the stakes were high and each “knew” we were right. Those big brother/little brother vibes were all over the place.
Jim began. “I’d like you all to stay here. This is where we grew up, and we have the ability to survive. We can expand the wall and continue to expand it so we’ll all have plenty of room.”
I countered. “I do think you have an excellent setup. I also think that it’s too close to the highway, and that hordes of zombies are going to be moving down that highway. It’s wide open and there’s no way to block it.”
Jim responded. “We have enough heavy equipment to build a wall, over time, across the entire valley at both ends. We’ll be able to find supplies, guns, and once we control the valley we’ll have the space to farm and ranch and we’ll control a large area with clean water, open fields, and probably quite a few survivors.”
“Jim, I can see how that might work. But you’ll need to evolve your techniques now that we know that the zombies are changing, or that there are different types. The Brains and Wolves scare me. What’s next? You’re a sitting duck if a big enough horde comes along.”
“Obviously, Jack, I will learn from today and from whatever else happens as we go along. No more Chute. I already have the guys out mapping the valley and the valley walls to locate weak spots that we can close off. We’ll put a team at each end and a team at each side and we can be done within six months at the outside.”
“Sounds good, Jim. I want you to know that I just can’t stay. I don’t know who plans to come with me, but all are welcome. We’re looking for a more protected spot with fewer people and zombies and no highways. I realize it will be remote, but we’ll homestead it with farms, ranches, and dairy farms. It won’t be long before all of these leftover supplies will be gone or rotten. I just have to be away from the highway.”
We decided to let everyone decide their own fate and that the decision would be made the next day.
The night passed quietly. Jim and I agreed that neither of us would do any lobbying. We spent the night up on the platform, plinking and drinking. We did begin to lay out an arrangement where his “colony” and my “colony” would be in constant communication, and maintain an active trade route between us. We agreed to use certain primary shortwave frequencies and set up relays as necessary to speak to one another. We hoped that his colony could spread up toward us and we could spread down toward him and maybe some day we’d meet. We got along pretty well for two guys whose varying opinions forced them apart.
We had decided that each person would get one pink tennis ball and one yellow tennis ball. People under 16 would stay with their mother or father and therefore they’d vote as a family. Those over 16 could have their own vote. A pink ball was a vote to come with me, while a yellow ball was a vote to stay with Jim. How I got pink, I don’t know.
We really had no idea what would happen, and it actually worked out pretty well. We each had a bucket in front of us, and people or families would come over and vote. Although the stakes were high, it was relaxed and kind of fun. Each camp would cheer when it got a new member and jeer at the others. It was kind of like the Hufflepuffs and the Gryffindors. The zombies were the Slytherins. I forget the other one.
When the dust settled, I actually had a few more travelers on my team than I expected. I had, before Jim and I made our deal, carefully recruited two of his heavy equipment operators, and they came through. One was sweet on Christina. The other was sweet on Jake, who cle
arly reciprocated. No anti-gay bias in the Brave New World!
Stan, Marj, and Christina were with me, as were Tom, Li, George, and Sumner. Jake, naturally. Julie. Bill and Nancy Johnson along with Tyler and Cody. My five stalwarts. Four of the moms and seven of the kids that we’d rescued at Jenny’s. We were just starting to learn their names. We had a group of about thirty. Jim had about fifty.
Jenny, some of the rescued moms and kids, and the great majority of Jim’s guys stayed with him. I’d miss Jenny and her kids, but we hoped to have visits in the future and to stay in touch. I was glad that Jim would have some medical help; I actually considered Jenny more useful than Nancy in that department.
Once the vote was over, everyone was relieved. We spent that day partying and planned to pack on the next day. Before we started packing, Jim and I exchanged presents. I gave him and Jenny a bunch of pictures I’d taken from Mom and Dad’s house, although I kept a few, too. I gave Jenny Mom’s rings and Jim Dad’s .357, which he enjoyed.
Jim had focused on hardware. He had a new M-79 for Mike plus two cans of ammo. He had filled up all of our vehicles with gas, and had his guys fortify them better and build the firing platform on top of the bus. It was beautiful. They mounted our M-107 up there and built a circular turret for it. Jim had provided a day and a night scope and had added a couple of cans of ammo to the supply that Tom had brought.
Jim loved Tom’s armored and armed Hummer but thought his two .30 cals were too light. He swapped them out for a .50 cal, and mounted the .30 cals on the Expeditions. He had improved the mount on the .50 cal in the pickup. He gave us another mounted .30 cal for the van.
He saved the best, I thought, for last. He had carefully checked out our arsenal and decided to upgrade us a bit. We had twenty Ruger .22 pistols for the smaller people and twenty Colt .45s for the big people. Each handgun had at least ten magazines. Each vehicle had a rack with two 12 gauges mounted with tactical lights and a second rack with two full auto M4s in .223, one with a night scope and one with a hunting scope and a mounted grenade launcher. He loaded crates of grenades, Claymores, and ammo into the vehicles and the trailer. He had built a gun locker in the rear of the bus and loaded it with M4s, 12 gauges, and .22 rifles. He gave us two silencers and six scopes for the M4s. He fitted us all out with tactical vests.
Jim was more than generous and, like Robin Hood, shared his goodies with the less fortunate. We spent the day admiring our new setup, the night partying, and got up early to leave. A few hugs and promises, and we were gone.
Chapter Eighteen: North to Vermont
We crossed Jim’s temporary bridge and started to head north and west. Our goal was to reach Vermont. We figured there wouldn’t be many zombies there since the state was so sparsely populated. We hoped to find a protected spot on the coast of Lake Champlain in an unpopulated area where we could do some dairy and cattle farming and live off the land.
The going was slow. Lots of people had tried to evacuate. I had no idea where they thought they were going, but the Mass Pike was jammed both ways. We decided to use our GPS units to pick our way down smaller roads. The satellites were still working fine.
Sean had discovered that all of the cars had DVD players in them and he really wanted to see some movies. He had brought a couple from home but insisted that we get some more ASAP. I thought sadly that it would be a long time before anyone would be making movies again. In the meantime, I was forced to listen to “Talladega Nights” and “The Stepbrothers” about a hundred times each.
I thought about raiding a Target or Wal-Mart store. It sounded dangerous, since everyone had probably headed there. We’d have to wait and see. Sean wanted to raid a GameStop for video games. He still had handheld video games which he somehow always kept charged. I told him that risking our lives for GameStop was not likely.
We traveled slowly, not more than twenty miles per hour, with about fifty yards between vehicles. We’d have to stop every once in awhile to move cars out of the way. Many of the cars had zombies in them. They couldn’t operate seatbelts or doors and were trapped. Almost all of the cars had something dead in them. We would carefully evaluate which cars would need to be moved. If it was a zombie car, we’d have to clear it, then reach in get it in neutral, then roll or push it out of the way. All of the cars stank. Stan, Jake and I took turns doing it with the help of Darnell, Jake’s new buddy, and Cleveland, Christina’s friend. It was not pleasant duty, but we did find the occasional useful item, including a nice 1911 .45 with a metal can full of ammo and a case of 12 gauge double ought shells with a nice double-barreled Benelli. It was amazing what people had brought with them—big televisions, booze, bags of cash and jewelry, drugs, electronics, and other useless stuff. Some had clearly died of dehydration because they didn’t bring enough water. Stupid.
We saw hundreds of zombies. We would run down those on the road and ignore the rest. We stopped every couple of hours at a gas station and topped off all of our tanks. We would quickly grab water and food to replace what we’d eaten. For the time being, supplies were simply not a problem. So many people had turned, and zombies did not eat or drink.
We started to look for a place to sleep at about 3:00 p.m. each day because finding a safe place took time. Some nights we were lucky and found an isolated house that we could quickly clear and barricade. Other times, we’d sleep in the cars. Those nights, we’d circle the wagons, with each car facing a different way. Some would sleep and some would keep watch.
Each time, we’d have to kill zombies because they were active all night. Not many, but a steady stream of them. We’d use what we called our “hand weapons.” Sean called them his “melee weapons” because he was a big Left 4 Dead fan. Since he was only eleven, we did not let him get close enough to use them, but he was ready. His was a military entrenching tool with a sharpened edge. He practiced with it all the time.
The kids slept okay in the cars, but it was hell for the adults. A few times we slept in commercial buildings or gas stations. Sometimes we stopped for a few days to rest. We always had plenty to eat and drink but we were always exhausted on the road, so the rest times were necessary. One time we camped out for a few days in a big Barnes & Noble bookstore. Everyone loved it and we all stocked up on our favorite books. We also grabbed a selection of books about farming and raising beef and dairy cattle. Sean chose a book about chickens, Mike took pigs, and Bobbie took rabbits. Bobbie was my little cutie, but I had no doubt that she’d “share” her rabbits around the dinner table without hesitation.
I took the time to teach Mike to drive and he caught on quickly. He’d try to get going too fast from time to time but his mother would quickly get on the radio and tell him to slow down. To his credit, he always listened. The guys tried to let all of the kids over 14 learn to drive. No need for learner’s permits anymore.
We’d constantly play with our GPS maps and try to figure out where we should settle. Stan would propose a site and Marj would shoot him down. I’d propose a site and Kate would point out something wrong with it. Jake would propose a site and Darnell would come up with a better site. One of the kids would propose a site and all of the other kids would jump ugly. It was sort of funny but we also learned a lot about what we were looking for.
There were really two camps. One camp wanted to settle somewhere, fast, and get ready for winter. They figured that we could make it work, but wanted to feel at home ASAP. This camp also grumbled from time to time about returning to Jim’s. The other wanted to wait for the perfect place with the low population, isolation, water, and farming that we’d been talking about. It never got to the point of mutiny.
I thought it was probably explained best by the concept of cognitive dissonance or rationalization. The human mind wraps itself around what it decided to do and supports that as having been the right idea. One example is that a person who pays $10 for an item thinks it’s better and more useful than someone who pays $3, who likes it more than someone who got it as a gift. So those who had decided to
come with us decided they’d made the right call.
I was thinking about trying to find an island in Lake Champlain, maybe something connected by a causeway that we could barricade. Big enough to farm; small enough to defend. Maybe a nice farmhouse and a forest for firewood. An artesian well with a hand pump. Nice and simple. Playing around on the GPS made me think that Grand Isle, in the middle of Lake Champlain, might work. It was kind of big, but isolated by water and limited road access, full of working farms, and completely out in the boonies, population under 2,000. I proposed it to the group and they agreed to take a look.
To get there, we had to go through Burlington, a decent sized city. We decided to take a look at the city and stock up on supplies before we got to the island. We really had no idea what we’d find up there. We also decided to check the Coast Guard station in Burlington to see if that installation had survived.
Chapter Nineteen: The First Battle of Burlington
We’d had some discussions at Jim’s about trying a large-scale zombie eradication in an urban area. We decided that we’d build a few platforms, make some noise, draw as many zombies as we could in, and kill them. Ultimately, we wanted to end as many as we could; we knew we, or some other survivors, would have to deal with them eventually. We decided to target Brains and Speeders in particular.
As we entered Burlington, we saw plenty of zombies. It had been a city of about 40,000 people. It seemed like most of them were still around in zombie form. We simply couldn’t afford to allow them to horde and attack us on the island. We decided to try a few different approaches and see what worked best.
First, we cleared a small police station of zombies. It had a sally port so we could park the smaller vehicles inside. The station had been barricaded but clearly had fallen when those inside the barricade had turned. It was sad to have to end all those former police officers but we needed a safe base for our operation. We cleaned it up as well as we could. No running water, heat, or electricity but we were only going to be there for a few days.
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