Not spotting anything on his side, Bill lowered the binoculars. “Not until they see something to eat, then they are like the unrelenting ocean,” Bill mumbled.
“Got that shit right,” Johnathan said, watching the three stinkers. “If they keep on that path, the closest they will get to us will be eight hundred yards. I want to climb up to the ridge and see how they navigate the slope down to the road.”
Giving a scoffing snort, “Johnathan, that’s not a slope; that is a fucking cliff. You can’t climb it unless you were on all fours,” Bill said.
“Yeah, that slope in most places on this side is sixty degrees,” Johnathan said, putting the caps on his binoculars. “Across the road, it’s seventy to eighty.”
“Then, take into account it’s over a five-hundred-foot drop to the road and you can call it a cliff,” Bill said as Johnathan moved out of the ravine and crawled up to the ridgeline.
Glancing back, Johnathan could see the wives fifty yards away and almost that much below him. Satisfied he could watch his area from here, Johnathan peeked over the ridgeline and saw stinkers ambling down the road heading north.
Grabbing his binoculars, Johnathan shook his head at seeing all the stinkers heading north. There was only one stopped car on the road he could see and it was crashed in the ditch. For the most part, the stinkers were staying on the road at a slow walk. Lifting the binoculars up, Johnathan studied the stinkers as individuals.
He saw young, old, male, female, and every race. Some could have passed for living except for the pasty white skin, while others amazed him that they could walk. Johnathan saw several missing most of their abdominal cavities. One had an obvious broken knee but was still moving north at a much slower pace. The other stinkers just moved around anything that was slower than them.
After making some mental notes to add to his findings, Johnathan glanced back to the southeast and saw the three stinkers walking along the ridge. Sucking in a breath, Johnathan watched the first one step over the ridge and actually take two steps on the steep slope, then went ass over tea kettle cartwheeling down the slope.
“I don’t care who you are, that hurt,” Johnathan mumbled and saw the second one start cartwheeling down the slope followed by the third. Zooming in, Johnathan saw the first one in the ditch and shook his head.
The stinker was actually folded in half with its ass resting on its back and feet over the shoulders. Several stinkers stopped at the noise and movement. Only a few made an effort to move closer but stopped and continued the flow north.
Of the three that tumbled down the hillside, only one could stand, but it was obvious the left femur was shattered. This didn’t seem to bother the stinker as it joined in the parade heading north. The other two pulled their bodies along with their arms. “Worse than lemmings,” Johnathan nodded, lowering his binoculars.
Crawling back, Johnathan rejoined Bill. “Was that them falling down the mountain?” Bill asked.
“Yeah,” Johnathan answered. “They are busted to shit, but still mobile.”
“That’s cheating,” Bill huffed. “They don’t get tired and don’t feel pain.”
Taking his sunglasses off and wiping the sweat off the lens, Johnathan shrugged. “Normally, I would disagree because we don’t know stinkers can’t feel but after seeing that, if they can feel, then they can ignore anything.”
Hearing movement below them, they turned and saw Sandy moving up to them. “Guess Mary and I get first rest,” Bill said.
“Want to set up that tent?” Johnathan asked.
“Hell, no,” Bill huffed. “I want to be able to haul ass with this many stinkers close.”
Smiling, Johnathan nodded. “Can’t argue that,” he replied as Sandy joined them and passed Johnathan a bowl.
“Mary has yours,” Sandy said, taking Bill’s spot behind Johnathan as Bill headed down the ravine.
“Thanks,” Johnathan said, eating slowly.
“Johnathan, we need to make one of our meals smaller,” Sandy said looking around. “We don’t have the supplies for two meals this size.”
“Babe, three thousand calories a day isn’t enough for the energy we are expending and you want to decrease it?” Johnathan asked, glancing over his shoulder.
“Then we need to get more supplies,” Sandy sighed, then smiled weakly. “Well, I’ve lost those ten pounds I’ve been trying for.”
Reaching back, Johnathan patted Sandy on her leg. “We should get close to some ranches over the next few weeks. If no people are in one and not many stinkers, we can try them.”
“Johnathan,” Sandy said in a very low voice while turning around to face him. “I’m sorry, but I can’t keep this pace up,” Sandy whimpered in a breaking voice. “I’m trying with everything I have but honey, my body is giving out on me.”
“Is that why you wrecked this morning?” Johnathan asked and slowly, Sandy nodded. “Sandy, I hate to tell you this, but that’s why I wrecked yesterday. It’s taking everything I have to just move. We went eight hours of traveling because those twelve hour days liked to have killed us.”
Wiping her eyes, “But that will just take us longer,” Sandy griped.
Grabbing Sandy’s hand, Johnathan squeezed it. “Sandy, if we keep this pace up, we won’t make it,” Johnathan told her softly. “We can try six hour days.”
“Why haven’t you said anything?” Sandy asked looking around and not seeing movement.
Giving a curt grunt, “Because until you and Mary admitted it, Bill and I were going to keep pushing hard,” Johnathan responded. “Every time we’ve slowed, both of you complain.”
Squeezing Johnathan’s hand, “Well, we talked about it and agreed that we need to move slower,” Sandy said.
Feeling relief wash over him, Johnathan wanted to collapse back. Never in his life had he been this tired or sore. The worst was two weeks ago, traveling in California. It took them all day to cover twenty-two miles but in reality, they had only moved nine. Moving from one mountain, across a valley, and up the side of another mountain, when they stopped that afternoon, they looked back across the valley to the other mountains and saw the dirt road they’d been on that morning.
Pushing the bikes up steep grades at altitudes of four and five thousand feet was murder on their bodies. Each one had lost those stubborn midlife pounds that refused to work off. The new post-apocalyptic exercise and diet plan had no problems getting the stubborn weight off.
“I’m glad because you two were wearing Bill and I out,” Johnathan told her as he finished his bowl off. Ignoring his still starving stomach, Johnathan set his bowl down. “We need to take more than one day off to rest. This traveling for three and resting for one is too hard. Not saying we can’t but if we had to run hard right now, we would die.”
Giving a long sigh, Sandy nodded. “That’s what Mary and I talked about after seeing the parade below,” Sandy agreed.
“What do you think about traveling at night?” Johnathan asked carefully.
Looking at Johnathan with raised eyebrows, “You think we can safely?” she asked.
“Just as safe as in the daylight but if it’s cloudy and too dark, we won’t,” Johnathan said, looking around. “But to be honest, our eyes will adjust.”
Letting Johnathan’s hand go, Sandy grabbed her binoculars and looked north. “Ahh, a deer,” she said, lowering the binoculars. Johnathan turned and saw the mule deer three hundred yards away, bouncing over the scrub brush.
“Too far away, honey,” Johnathan informed her.
“Damn,” Sandy mumbled, lowering the binoculars. “We’ve seen with our own eyes that stinkers are more active at night. Hell, they will stop in the shade during the day unless they see something.”
“Hopefully, we can stay in the sticks so there won’t be any to see us,” Johnathan said. “Ready to let Bill and Mary take over so we can rest?”
“If you want, we can stay here. I really don’t want to move unless I have to,” Sandy confessed.
Nodding w
ith a grin, “I feel the same way,” Johnathan said.
Chapter Six
Easing the buggy along the ridge, Lance stopped and looked around the woods through his NVGs. This was the fourth day of heading to Bones’ house and emptying it. Lance had made the decree last night, empty or not, they were burning the damn thing down when they left today.
Setting up a radio to the south, they had used a remote to turn it on and the large group around the house had moved away. Putting on closed circuit respirators, they’d gone inside and had taken care of stinker-Bones and his crew that was still trapped inside. Even with the full-face respirators, their eyes had stung inside the house.
On the first day, they had opened all the upstairs windows to air out the house. With Jennifer and Dino keeping a watch, Lance and Ian had started moving the stuff inside and hiding it in the woods around the house. Before they’d left, they had put another radio on the roof and turned it on, pulling the group back to the house to guard it.
Coming to a stop, Lance looked over at Ian. “Pull the guard dogs away,” Lance mumbled.
Lifting up his arm and holding a remote, Ian pressed a button. Off in the distance, they heard music playing softly, thanks to the hearing aids. “Thank you for saying this is the last day of this shit,” Ian sighed as he dropped his arm.
“All that’s left is the ammo,” Lance said in a drone, glancing to his left. Dino was standing at the front of the buggy, looking down the slope. They couldn’t see the house because of the trees, but they had climbed the hills that surrounded the large house enough. Either of them could walk to it with their eyes closed and not hit a tree.
“I think we will have it all out before sunset,” Lilly said softly behind them. Lilly and Jennifer had swapped out each day, heading out with Lance and Ian. On the first day, Jennifer had made a decree that the guard would trade out each hour.
Not even arguing about the man card, Ian and Lance had just nodded thankfully.
Stinkers still showed up, but only in ones or small groups. Nothing they couldn’t take out with their bows. All around the house now were black spots where they had burned the bodies. Slowly, Lance turned to Ian, holding his right hand in a fist in his left palm. Giving a sigh, Ian did the same. “One, two, three,” Ian said, hitting his palm with each count.
Lance sighed with relief when he held ‘rock’ and Ian ‘scissors’. “Sorry, dude,” Lance said with a grin.
“Guys, I’ll make sure they’re gone,” Lilly said, getting out of the backseat. They both turned to look at her as she checked her gear. She had been tickled pink when they had brought her a 3D suit like theirs, but found that the carbon-lined suit got hot as hell. Lifting her head up, Lilly saw them staring at her. Flipping up her NVG, “Guys, I’ve moved around out here a lot since this shit started,” she told them, trying not to grin. The quad tube NVGs that Ian and Lance wore made them look like weird bug-eyed insects.
With his mind telling him only a man card holder should do this, Lance listened and gave in to his exhausted body. His body was saying ‘damn the man card to hell’. “If you need us, call,” Lance said wearily. “Take Dino.”
Ian fought the desire to reach over and hug Lance. Gripping his AR, Ian turned so he could watch behind them as Lilly patted her leg softly. Dino moved over beside her and they eased off into the draw the house was set in. “Jennifer’s going to give me hell over this,” Ian stated but at the moment, really didn’t give a shit.
“She can get over it,” Lance said, looking around and then down at his watch and saw it was 0410. “Hell, I remember a few weeks ago when we would be pissing all over ourselves out in the woods when it was this dark.”
“Humph,” Ian snorted. “Last night we were out until midnight, cleaning up the stinkers the tigers killed.”
Feeling irritated, Lance turned to Ian. “Those pussies need to learn to clean up after themselves,” Lance grumbled.
Slowly nodding as he looked around the woods, “You see the way those tigers took off on Monday when the ladybugs came outside?” Ian asked with a grin.
Turning away from Ian, Lance nodded with a smile. “Those pussy cats better be glad because I was about to go hunting,” Lance replied.
“House is clear,” Lilly called over the radio and neither jumped at the interruption.
Grabbing the steering wheel, Lance guided the buggy down the draw where it opened into a canyon where the house sat. They had to keep taking different paths to the house, so the buggy wouldn’t wear a trail. That was the reason they were so tired. They were carrying the equipment out of the draw by hand.
“Wonder if the little dicks have been able to get out?” Ian asked in a tired drawl as Lance pulled into the backyard.
They had heard the Devil Lords call out on the radio for several of their group around them to lead some of the mass of stinkers away around Pineville the day they had started. Lilly climbed into the backseat as Lance came to a stop. “I don’t know how many stinkers are there but I can guarantee you, they still have some,” Lilly said, dropping into the seat. “You can’t let them build up around you.”
“Dumbasses riding around on bikes that can be heard ten miles away deserve to get eaten,” Lance said, pulling up to the back door. “I hope I don’t have to wear that damn respirator today.”
Slowly climbing out, Ian turned and looked at the respirators on the trailer hooked to the buggy. “We didn’t yesterday,” Ian shrugged as Dino let out a soft growl.
All weariness left their bodies as both spun around and saw a stinker coming around the side of the house. Lifting their ARs, both squeezed their triggers and the stinker’s head evaporated. Glancing around, they didn’t see anymore.
“I had it,” Lilly hissed, lowering her bow.
“Sorry,” Ian and Lance replied together without inflection. They moved the grill over and Lance climbed up on the roof over the back porch. Sticking his head in the window, he shook his head as the smell of bleach burnt his nose. The room used to hold chopped up body parts of several women, but they had tossed them out and poured bleach throughout the house.
“I can barely smell the hydrogen sulfide, but I can still smell the shit from Bones and his crew,” Lance mumbled, climbing in the room. Remembering all the dried up stains, Lance shook his head as he walked into the hallway. “Maybe we did go a little too far with the laxative.”
Reaching the back door, Lance unlocked it and opened it up. They didn’t booby trap the house since there were over a hundred stinkers roaming around, but they did lock it. The only reason they did was so if the gang showed up, it would take them time to get in the house.
Walking in, Ian groaned. “Bleach diarrhea,” he snorted. “Want to wait until we have more light?”
“Fuck that, we will stack the shit on the back porch,” Lance huffed, turning around and heading to the garage. The basement had taken them two and a half days to bring up. Most of the weapons and stuff down there had been in crates, so they’d felt okay about leaving it in the woods.
With Lilly standing outside on the back porch, Lance and Ian started moving ammo cans from the packed garage. “We taking ammo home today?” Ian asked following Lance.
“Belted ammo,” Lance answered, grabbing two cans. “I also want to get those guns that we had to wrap up in plastic bags and the rest of the explosives.”
Picking up two cans, “Dude, we aren’t using explosives yet,” Ian huffed.
“There’s only five crates of C4, but I want the hand grenades, 40mm bloopers, and the claymore mines,” Lance said, heading back inside.
“What about the det cord?” Ian asked when they were back in the garage.
“Oh, forgot about that but yeah, I want that too,” Lance said, grabbing two cans.
Wishing he had kept his mouth shut, Ian gave a grunt while lifting two more cans. “Lance, we don’t have much room left and I really don’t like the idea of not having the explosives inside the cabin.”
“We put it in the cabin or in the
hidden shop because we aren’t leaving it out,” Lance said.
After an hour, Lilly swapped out with Ian as dawn broke. With Ian and Dino on guard, Lance and Lilly started carrying the cans up the draw to a natural ditch at the crest. When they came back down, Lance turned and looked at the lip of the ravine several hundred yards away up the steep slope. “Hold on,” Lance pondered, moving into the house.
Five minutes later he came back out carrying a mop and glanced up at the dark clouds rolling in from the west. Unscrewing the thick wooden handle from the mop, Lance moved to the ammo cans and stacked six cans in a row. Then he threaded the mop handle through the handles. “Let’s see if we can carry this,” Lance offered, motioning Lilly to the front.
Each gave a grunt and set the handle on their shoulder, then headed across the backyard and up the ravine. Stacking the cans in the ditch, Lance looked at Lilly, “Was that too heavy?” he asked panting.
“No, I like that better than carrying two at a fucking time,” Lilly replied, panting as they headed back down. “Let’s try eight.”
“That’s over two hundred pounds,” Lance replied, seeing Ian had stacked six cans in a row.
Grabbing two cans and setting them in the row, “Lance, you may not be bothered by this, but I want back inside the cabin, it’s spooky out here,” Lilly admitted as Lance threaded the mop handle along the ammo cans.
Grinning, Lance got on the back end as he and Lilly picked up the stack. “I’m tired so I could care less about spooky,” Lance said with a grunt, setting the handle on his shoulder.
When they came back, Ian swapped out with Lance. “Why didn’t you think of this when we were moving them out of the house?” Ian snapped, picking up the handle.
“You have a brain,” Lance huffed.
“It’s numb,” Ian declared as Lilly set the other end on her shoulder and they headed up the draw. It didn’t take them long to empty the porch and when it was time for Lilly to change out, they were just carrying the cans from the garage up the draw.
At noon, they stopped and sat on the buggy, grabbing some food. Lance looked over at the burning pile of stinkers that had come up around the house. “More have come today to investigate,” Lance commented, shoving food in his mouth. “Wonder why?”
Forsaken World (Book 3): Rite of Passage Page 5
