by Gary Chesla
“But they wouldn’t have bothered with the food,” Davis replied.
“I bet it was prairie dogs,” Rogers said. “If the motion detector was activated fifty times, I bet there was an entire herd of them out there last night.”
“You and your damn prairie dogs again,” Davis growled. “Besides, you don’t know shit about prairie dogs.”
“I do too,” Rogers protested.
“Then how come you don’t know that prairie dogs don’t live in herds,” Davis grinned. “They live in colonies.”
“Knock it off,” Chervy said. “I’m trying to concentrate.”
“What else could it be,” Rogers asked. “If those old infected people didn’t do it, it had to be prairie dogs.”
“Well, we’re about to find out, the files are almost finished downloading,” Chervy said.
“And before you bring it up, no, I’m not betting you,” Davis said.
Chervy watched as the files finished downloading and appeared on the desktop of the computer.
He clicked on the first file, a second later the first picture appeared.
The men all stared at the screen.
“I thought she was dead?” Davis said.
“Apparently not,” Doc said. “Our mystery visitor is a lot more resourceful than we thought.”
“But we saw her under a pile of the infected,” Rogers said. “They pulled her to the ground and were climbing all over her.”
“To be accurate, we saw a pile of the infected on the ground,” Doc added. “However, we never saw what was under that pile. We just assumed it was our visitor. Cherv, what time was this picture taken last night?”
“0200,” Chervy replied.
“Since we know it was our visitor, click through all the pictures and let’s find out what she did,” Doc said.
Chervy began to click on the keyboard every few seconds.
They all watched as what took place at the food drop site last night flashed across the screen.
The visitor approached the food, like she had done on the prior night.
This time, there wasn’t any of the dead waiting for her.
Over the course of three hours, she made three trips to the food crate.
On each trip, she loaded what appeared to be a suitcase and then disappeared with her treasure of food items.
“Doc, that was amazing,” Chervy said. “Did you see how she separated the food from the other items. She must have great night vision.”
“It could be that she can tell soap from beef jerky by how they feel,” Davis said.
“I have another question,” Rogers said.
“Something bothering you again?” Davis grinned.
“Yeah,” Rogers said. “If the dead are coming back to life out there because the virus is so active, why is that girl still alive. Shouldn’t she have been infected by now?”
“Good question,” Doc replied. “However, at this point, we don’t have an answer. Guessing would be useless. What we need are some facts.”
“How do we get facts about something like that?” Chervy asked.
“First, we place more food at the site and hope our visitor returns,” Doc replied. “Mr. Chervanek, set the satellite to monitor a two-mile radius around the food drop tonight starting at 0200. The longest time between the time she left the sight and then returned was about half an hour. That means walking one way, she was taking the food no further away than one mile. If she comes back, which I suspect that she will, hopefully we can follow her back to where she is holding up. If we can find that out, then we may have a chance to communicate with her.
Second, Rogers and Davis, after you drop off another food crate, I want you to bring back the two samples I requested. Go have Reynolds prepare another crate of food, then get the coordinates for the cemetery.”
“Yes Sir,” Rogers replied as he and Davis left the room, leaving Doc and Chervy alone.
“Well Doc, it looks like we aren’t done yet,” Chervy said.
“Yes,” Doc replied. “It does appear that we have been given a second chance. Hopefully this time things will go a bit differently. I certainly hope so, because we may never have another opportunity like this one again.”
Chapter 20
July 2nd, Camp Andersen RV Park, Idaho
Fran was sound asleep when a bright ray of sun light shined directly into her eyes, causing her to roll on her side and open her eyes.
The first thing she thought was that it was nice to have enough room to roll over and not bump into the side of the bathtub.
The second thing she thought was “This isn’t my bathtub! Where am I?”
Then Fran remembered she was in a funny looking trailer in an RV park somewhere on Route 84 and quickly sat up and began to look around.
She was happy to see that she and Snoop were alone in the little trailer, but as she looked out the window, she was upset to see that she had slept longer than she had intended.
The sun was already high in the sky, her best estimate would put the time at around 10:00 AM.
Of course, the words 10:00 AM no long meant much, other than the idea that she had wanted to get up when the sun first rose up over the horizon.
It just meant that she wouldn’t have as much daylight as she needed to get to Stone today.
It would have been a miracle for her to reach Stone today as it was, but now she knew the trip would take her two more days instead of just one.
“Maybe it is for the best,” Fran thought. “I would have probably killed myself trying to ride seventy miles in this hot sun. I should have just listened to John in the first place. I guess I can live with two more days on the road. I did say that the trip would probably take me four days because I would end up getting lost. At least I’m not lost, I don’t know where I am, but I’m not lost, yet!”
Fran relaxed slightly, resigning herself to the fact she wouldn’t reach Stone today.
She looked out the window again.
The sun was bright, and the clear blue sky at least meant that she wouldn’t have to travel in stormy weather.
“Well Snoop, if we don’t get up and get moving, we’re never going to make it to Stone,” Fran said and looked down at Snoop who was curled up next to the pillow.
Snoop opened his eyes and his tail began to wag, but other than that, he didn’t seem like he wanted to move anything else.
Fran chuckled.
“I guess I shouldn’t laugh at you,” she grinned. “Those little legs of yours probably feel like they walked three times as far as I did yesterday. You just rest while you can. At least you won’t have to walk all day today.”
Fran crawled out of bed and picked up the half-eaten bag of pretzels that was still sitting on the coffee table next to the CB.
She returned to the bed and sat down.
She shared the bag with Snoop, who lazily crawled across the bed and sat next to Fran and waited patiently for Fran to hand him a pretzel.
“Well Snoop,” Fran said talking to herself as much as to the puppy as she studied the bike that sat in the middle of the floor in front of her. “I can probably fit the bag with the CB and battery into the basket on the front of the bike. Your legs are too short to expect you to run along beside me, so we have to figure out what to do with you. You probably wouldn’t mind it if I just left you here to sleep for the rest of the day, that is until you got hungry. At that point you would bark your little head off.”
Snoop whined and looked at Fran.
“OK, here’s another pretzel, you little baby,” Fran smiled as she put a pretzel in Snoop’s open mouth.
Fran watched Snoop chew the pretzel.
“Baby! That’s it,” Fran said, her eyes lighting up.
Fran grabbed the pillow off the bed and pulled the pillow case off the pillow.
She got up and walked over to the cupboard and began to rummage through the drawers until she found a knife.
Fran then rolled the end of the pillow case down over the rest of the
pillow case.
It now looked like a cloth bag with double lined sides.
She then took the knife and cut a hole in the side of the doubled pillow case that was large enough for her to get her head through the hole.
Fran slipped her head through the hole, then sat admiring her work.
Fran had remembered seeing women walking around with their babies in a harness strapped to their backs.
What she had made didn’t look like one of those fancy baby carriers, but it should do the job.
“What do you think Snoop,” Fran smiled.
Apparently, Snoop wasn’t thinking anything, so Fran walked over, picked up the pup and slide him into the pouch that hung down over her chest.
Snoop moved around inside the pouch then stuck his head out of the opening on the top and looked around.
“It fits perfectly,” Fran grinned until Snoop decided to lick her face.
Fran thought about turning the pouch around so that Snoop would be on her back instead of on her front, but she knew it was better to have him where she could keep an eye on him.
Snoop had a way of getting himself into trouble when Fran let him out of her sight for very long.
“Now cut that out,” Fran protested. “If you can’t behave yourself, I’m going to make you walk.”
Snoop stopped licking her face and decided to explore his cozy pouch and ended up with his butt sticking out the opening in front of Fran’s face.
Fran grabbed the bag and rolled Snoop over so she was once again looking at his face, where he once again began to lick her face.
“OK, OK, I won’t make you walk, I’m not that cruel, but you’re pushing it buddy,” Fran laughed, pulling Snoop out of the pouch and setting him on the bed.
She tossed some pretzels on the bed to keep Snoop occupied while she got the bike ready for today’s trip.
Fran packed the battery and the CB back into the bookbag.
Then she put the water bottles and her clothes in the bag and zipped it.
However, when she tried to put the bookbag in the basket, because of the wheels and the handle, the bag wouldn’t fit.
Fran scratched her head as she thought about her problem for a few minutes.
When she emptied the bag, she found that the battery, CB, clothes and two of the water bottles would fit in the basket without the bookbag.
That was fine with Fran, she was tired dragging that ugly pink thing around anyways.
The bike had two bottle holders on the post under the seat that fortunately held the final two bottles of water that Fran had left.
As she decided whether to try to take the two empty water bottles with her, or to throw them away, Fran walked over to the sink and turned on the faucet.
“Well this makes the decision easy,” Fran thought as she dropped the bottles in the sink. “I don’t have the room to carry things around just in case I might be able to use them later.”
The only thing that came out of the faucet was a short hiss of air, then nothing.
Fran took a few minutes to look through the drawers and cupboards, hoping to find anything else that would be useful, but other than the bag of pretzels that Fran had found last night, the little trailer was empty.
Fran turned and said, “OK Snoop, time to go.”
“Snoop, where are you?” Fran started to ask, then she saw the puppy sitting on the edge of the bed with his nose up against the window.
Fran started to smile until she heard a low growl coming from Snoop.
She quickly ran to Snoop’s side, looking outside to see what had Snoop worked up.
Fran hoped it wasn’t anything worse than a stray cat that had decided to walk through the park, but that thought faded as she saw two staggering figures coming down off the interstate and entering the RV park.
She scanned the rest of the park, but didn’t see anything else moving anywhere.
She moved to the kitchen window and checked the back side of the park, there was one more figure working its way into the park from that direction too.
“John was right, again,” Fran thought. “They’re back. Just what I need.”
Fran picked up Snoop and slid him into the pouch and tucked his leash in the bag next to him.
She grabbed the handlebars of the bike and wheeled it over to the door.
“Hang on Snoop,” Fran whispered. “We have to make a run for it before the zombies get here.
Don’t worry, they aren’t very fast, once we get moving they won’t be able to catch us.
Of course, if I had a rake I could knock their heads off, but I’d rather just get out of here if you don’t mind. We don’t have the time to play with the zombies.”
Fran slowly opened the door and eased the bicycle down the single step to the grass.
Out of habit, Fran closed the door behind her before pushing the bike out to the dirt road that ran through the park.
Before Fran reached the road, she knew she had been spotted by the groaning she heard coming from the side of the park next to the interstate.
Snoops head popped up out the pouch and he began to growl again.
Fran pushed his head back down in to the pouch.
“I see I have something else to teach you,” Fran said under her breath as she jumped up on the bike and began to pedal. “When you pick a fight with someone, it’s always a good idea to pick on someone smaller than you. In your case, that means you be quiet and don’t pick any fights.”
Fran looked back over her shoulder as she rode through the park, the two zombies that had spotted her were coming her way but were quickly losing ground.
She exited the park and followed the road that paralleled the interstate until she came to the ramp that took her back up on Route 84.
Route 84 wasn’t as heavily congested with abandoned cars as she went south.
The further she went, the easier it became to ride the bike.
After yesterday’s slow pace, it felt good to see the mile markers appear and disappear much faster today.
Fran had just passed mile marker 195, when she decided to stop for a break.
She stopped not because she was tired, but because neither she nor Snoop had an opportunity to have their morning bathroom break yet today.
Snoop was a dog that just did whatever popped in to his little head and Fran didn’t want to have to ride all day with a wet smelly pouch hanging around her neck.
When she came to a place on the highway that was at least thirty feet away from any cars, Fran stopped and got off her bike.
She reached in the pouch and grabbed Snoop’s leash and tied it to his collar, then lifted him out of the bag and set him down on the ground.
Snoop just sat there, looking up at Fran.
“Well,” Fran said. “Don’t just sit there, I know you have to go, so go!”
Snoop just looked at her for a second, then walked over to the front wheel of the bike and lifted his leg.
“Sorry, I forgot,” Fran frowned. “It’s not any fun unless you can go on something.”
Their break lasted about five minutes, then after a few more pretzels, Fran put Snoop back in the pouch and started pedaling south again.
Traveling today was going a lot better than yesterday.
The further south Fran went, the fewer cars she had to deal with which meant that she could keep a steady pace instead of having to stop or slow down to get around pile ups and the cars that sat sideways across her path.
Snoop also decided that he was enjoying today more than yesterday. He decided to just make himself comfortable and enjoy the ride.
The first few miles, he rode with his head out of the pouch, eagerly enjoying the breeze and the scenery.
But after about an hour, he curled up and went to sleep.
Fran had spent most of the ride talking to Snoop, but when he decided to go to sleep, she decided to let a sleeping dog lie and focus on getting to Stone.
She settled in on a comfortable pace and tried to think of how t
hings were before the power went out and everything changed.
Her life was awful boring, so she couldn’t think of anything exciting to occupy her thoughts.
Next she tried to concentrate on how her life would change after she joined up with John and Flash in Stone.
But it was too hard and not any fun guessing about things she didn’t know anything about
Fran finally came up with a simple game that would occupy her mind but wouldn’t require too much thought.
She decided to count green cars.
She picked green because that was her favorite color.
Fran decided that after she counted one hundred green cars, her reward would be that she could stop for a drink and a pretzel.
As they day went on, Fran decided that green wasn’t a very popular color for cars in Idaho.
So far, she had only counted ten green cars.
She hadn’t picked red cars when she started her game because there were so many red cars.
She would have only traveled a mile before reaching one hundred red cars.
Of course she didn’t want to take a break that soon, but the way she was going, she would never get the chance to stop.
So Fran decided to count blue car and green cars so she could get to take a break before she passed out from the heat.
The sun had peaked earlier, but was still high overhead, beating down on her and she was soaked from perspiration.
The breeze from the moving bicycle helped keep the sweat out of her eyes, but her shirt under the pouch was soaking wet and getting uncomfortable.
Fran’s spirits lifted a little when she saw she was now passing mile marker 209, that meant that she had ridden her bike seventeen miles so far today.
That was almost as far as she had walked all day yesterday.
Yeah, she was making good time, but her legs were getting tired.
Riding a bicycle, she hadn’t expected to get this tired so soon.
