by S. Ganley
"Shit, sorry!" He yelled out, with little real hope that Calvin actually heard him in the back.
He turned the wheel to the left and lined them up on the main jogging path that would connect back with a service road that he could follow out of the park and clear of the fires burning on his right. Garrett also slowed down to little more than walking speed as soon as he saw the path was clear of any threats. Looking into his rear view mirror he saw that Calvin was sitting up against the tailgate of the truck bed while kneading the back of his neck hard with his hand. It had to have been a rough escape for his friend as he was tossed around against the metal sides in the back of the truck, but a few scrapes and bumps were minor concessions giving the alternative they faced at the hands and mouths of the zombies they had left behind. Now that they had escaped imminent danger it was time to start considering their next move, getting clear of the apartment with all three of them alive had been his only plan up until this point. He decided he would drive them a little ways further into town, as soon as he was comfortable that a location looked safe, he would stop and give them all a minute or two to readjust in the truck and get Kimberly situated in a more comfortable position. His camping gear from his last outing was still occupying most of the space in the rear of the crew cab, so he would have to shift that into the back and also make sure they got their weapons set up for easy access. Feeling a little better that he now had at least the start of an idea on his next move he focused on keeping the rest of the drive down the jogging trail as smooth as possible for the benefit of his already well battered riders.
Chapter 20
Kyle had driven them around for the better part of an hour looking for signs of other survivors and a possible safe place that they could hide out and rest for at least a little while. He was sure that there had to be others out there who were also immune to the illness or at least had been able to recover from it, but he was also reasonably sure that if they were out there the odds were they were hunkered down behind triple locked doors and drawn shades, itchy trigger fingers pointing guns at doors and windows just waiting for anything to even think of poking their head inside. The thought of those guns as well as the undead residents still occupying many dwellings or businesses, kept him from simply picking out a likely looking place and trying his luck on the inside. He thought about trying for his own home, but to get there he would have to travel down at least three miles worth of route 7 towards Sterling, and he had already seen what a complete mess the main roads were. It was certainly not worth the risk of getting them stuck somewhere out on the open road where they would be easy targets.
He was surprised with all that had happened that morning that he was actually hungry, he realized that he was more hungry and thirsty than he could remember feeling in a long time.
"Shellie, I think I could really go for something to eat and a drink, how about you?" Kyle asked his passenger.
Shellie had spent most of the time during their drive around town silently peering out her window, on a couple of occasions Kyle had been sure he caught her trying to stifle a sniffle and wipe away tears from her face. He didn't really know much of anything about her beyond that she seemed to be confident and effective at her job and any time he came across her around the office she also had a warm and inviting smile. He had become aware that she wore a wedding ring and was also of the age where it was likely to assume that she may have one or more children. The fact that she had not insisted on trying to reach her home or attempted to call a loved one on her cell told Kyle that she had either already resigned herself to their fate or was too scared to try and reach them only to find that there was no answer. He had almost tried to start a conversation with her to learn a little about her but had dismissed that idea when he figured that if he asked about her family and it brought her to a breakdown of some type he just wasn't in a position to deal with it at the moment.
"Yeah, I guess I could use some water or even a Coke if that is possible." She replied softly without taking her eyes away from the window.
They were passing by the recreation and sports center at the intersection of Lewinsville and Spring Hill Roads. He had been in there on a couple occasions with some friends trying out there fitness equipment and had even participated in a department intramural softball team two years ago that played some of their games at the adjoining softball field. The complex was made up of two large central buildings, the front housed offices, a children's area, conference rooms and an impressive snack bar area while the larger building in the rear contained exercise rooms, locker areas, a small indoor pool and two indoor gym areas. Normally it would have opened a little after five in the morning to allow those diehards in the local area who could drag themselves out of bed at that hour a location to work up a sweat before fighting the morning rush hour traffic. It had been closed since the middle of the week before due a failed air conditioning system leaving the facility a sweltering hell hole beyond most people’s tolerance for their workouts. What this meant for them was that the entire facility would have been completely empty when the outbreak hit and there was a good chance they could get inside, find something to eat and spend a little time resting up while trying to figure out what to do next. He pulled the cruiser into the parking lot and then drove around to the back of the furthest building to get an overview and assure himself that no one was around. Satisfied that at least from the outside the grounds appeared deserted, he parked close the front door and left his car turned facing back out the main drive ready to go in an instant if they were forced to make another run for it.
Instead of leaving Shellie in the car while he went off on his own to check the buildings out, he let her take along the shotgun and a pocket full of shells, she had certainly proved her worth with the use of the gun and the more eyes and shooters he had with him, the safer he felt. The front door of the building was locked tight, another good sign that it had not been disturbed any time recently, using the butt of his M4 he smashed in a pain of class at chest height and then reached in and unlocked the door from inside.
Staying together, they conducted a quick check of every room inside the smaller building and ensured that every outer door they came across was locked tight. Satisfied that they were as secure as they could get for the moment, Kyle led the way back to the snack bar and doled out drinks and pre-wrapped sandwiches he found stacked high in an industrial size refrigerator. They sat together at the juice bar with their chairs turned facing the front door where they had a good view of the approaching driveway and open football field off to one side.
#
Miranda was sure that it was gunfire she had heard, several minutes earlier. Under any other circumstance that sound would have caused her a great deal of anxiety and fear. She recalled waking up early that same morning by the same sounds near her own apartment and had spent a great deal of time crouched tight to the floor hiding in fear from it. Those same sounds that sent her whimpering onto her bedroom floor earlier that morning now had a totally different impact on her, the sounds of gunfire meant that someone, possibly police or military, was taking a stand against those things. She moved from the relative safety of the counter and took up station just inside the smashed double glass doors of the store where she could better see in the direction the shots came from. Her own apartment complex was separated by a patch of woods and a small park from another set of larger townhomes and she was pretty sure that the sounds had come from that general direction.
She had spent the better part of the last two hours futilely trying the store’s phone to reach anyone, even calls to her friends back in Philly went to voice mail or rang on and on without any answer. Several times she had picked up the phone and received nothing but static. In between her unsuccessful attempts with the phone, she had ventured back out into the aisles of the store, careful to avoid the one with the dead migrant worker and the sections of goods splattered with his blood and brains. She had gathered up a couple handfuls of snacks and several drinks and lined them all
up along the counter where she was keeping vigil on the street outside. She felt a little guilty about just taking the stuff, but reassured herself that once things were back to normal she would make every effort to return to this very store and offer to repay the management for everything she had taken.
The fire from her burning building had died down noticeably in the last hour, but the drifting smoke had now combined with the smoke from further up the street where she had noticed a large crowd of sick people just before crossing the street to reach the gas station. Her view up towards that end of the street was now reduced to only the next block up and other than the soft orange glow of the still burning buildings in that direction, she was no longer able to see if the crowd of people had remained near the strip mall where she had first noticed them.
Keeping as far back in the doorway as possible, Miranda scanned the distant buildings through the swirling smoke, a lump formed in her throat when she spotted movement in the small park just before it dumped back out onto the street crossing in front of the gas station. A momentary clearing in the smoke allowed her to see that a truck of some sort was moving slowly between the trees. She lost it again as the smoke once again billowed into an impenetrable cloud surrounding the park, but she kept her eyes focused on the spot where she thought it would reappear if it continued on the same course when she first noticed it. Bursting free of the smoke she picked it up again further down the street than she had anticipated, but she saw that the driver must have been trying to reach the opposite lane of traffic in order to travel back in her direction around all of the congestion in the other lane. She realized that the gas station she had taken refuge in must be their target, if they were going to stop somewhere it was the most obvious location for them to do so. Separated from any other buildings by at least half a block and situated on the corner of an open and wide intersection as it was, it offered a commanding view in most directions. Fear mixed with elation as she watched the truck slowly and cautiously pick its way around stalled and abandoned vehicles clogging the roadway. She didn't see any labels on the side of the truck that might identify it as some kind of service vehicle so she guessed it was privately owned, but even another civilian survivor like herself was much better than trying to make it on her own with all of those crazies running around outside. She couldn't make out a great deal of detail inside the passenger compartment but she could see that at least one person appeared to be sitting up in the rear bed of the truck, so she knew there was more than one person in the truck. Her survival instincts were pushing her to just jump out in the parking lot to flag them down, but after her experiences so far that morning, her common sense overrode that impulse and she pulled back on the reigns and kept herself out of sight just inside the door way watching to see what they did next.
#
Smoke from burning buildings had started to build into an almost impenetrable cloud as they neared the end of the trails and were about to turn out of the park and onto the main road running just beyond it. Garrett struggled to see more than a car length ahead of them and had to drop their speed to a crawl to avoid trees, benches and other obstacles. Through breaks in the smoke he could see that the right lane of the road was heavily congested with all manner of vehicles and completely impassable, the opposite lane of traffic looked much more navigable. As he felt the front wheels bounce up and over the curb at the edge of the road, he turned to the left where he saw their best chance at crossing over and carefully steered them through a gap in the traffic that had formed on the back side of a five car pileup. Garrett cringed as he heard the scrapping of metal on metal when he passed a little too close to the side of a UPS truck that looked as though it had started the pile up by trying to cut across lanes in the thick traffic. He had always taken great pride in keeping his truck pristine and looking good, now in the space of only a few minutes he had purposely rammed it into a parked car to push it out of the way and was now pushing it through a virtual cheese grater on one side trying to force his way through a traffic jam so he could drive against traffic on the wrong side of the road. Even facing a zombie apocalypse he found it ironic that he still worried about the little things in life like body damage to his truck, he was really needed to work on changing his priorities if he wanted them to survive for much longer.
Crossing the median he found a break in traffic and was able to turn back down the road towards the intersection where he knew a corner gas station with a wide open front lot that would serve as a good spot to stop for a minute or two and get everyone better situated inside the truck. So far he didn't see any signs of zombies in the street or surrounding area but he knew that this could change at any moment. He wasn't sure that the ones he had left behind around his own home were not still pressing their pursuit and worried they could be coming up behind them from out of the smoke. They needed to make this stop as brief as possible and put some distance between them and the more populated areas of town. It took him driving onto the sidewalk in a couple places to finally reach the intersection with the gas station and get pulled off the road into a position that he was comfortable he would be able to quickly get them moving again if they found themselves in a tight spot.
Garrett left the engine running and the driver’s door hanging open as he jumped out and rushed to the truck bed to check on his two passengers. Calvin was leaning up against one corner of the tailgate while carefully cradling Kimberly's head in his lap as she lay across the two bags of gear he had thrown into the bed under her. Calvin looked like he had been pretty banged during their escape from the back of Garrett's home and then the short but bumpy ride through the park.
"You, my friend, are an asshole. And as an asshole, the next time we have to make a run for it like that, you will be the bouncy ball in the back of the truck." Calvin groaned as he carefully placed Kimberly's head down on top of one of the bags and then started a prolonged process of stretching and rubbing at his battered and bruised muscles.
Garrett felt honest pity for his friend, he had been in the back of enough military vehicles driven hard over rough terrain to sympathize with the pain his body must be feeling at that moment. He also thought that at least Kimberly had been in and out of consciousness and likely had felt nothing of their harrowing escape, although he imagined if she recovered from the illness that she would feel the results of being battered around in the back of the truck for the next several days.
"Sorry, really wish I could have given you an easier ride. If it helps you feel any better, look at the wreck I made of my damn truck trying to get the three of us out of there in one piece." Replied Garrett as he pointed at the deep scratches, twisted pieces of metal and missing trim from one end of his truck to the other.
Calvin was less than impressed with the damage and gave it only a passing glance as he jumped from the bed of the truck and continued stretching his aching joints.
"So, you seem to have all the bright ideas today, what’s our next move?" Calvin asked as he reached back into the truck and retrieved one of the AK's from its bag. Checking that the magazine had remained seated, he chambered the first round and then slung the rifle over his shoulder.
"How is Kimberly holding up?" asked Garrett ignoring the question for the time being having no idea what their next move should be.
"She has probably seen better days, but no change that I can tell. Her fever seems to have slackened off some and she mumbled a little bit right before you picked us up, thought she was going to come out of it but that was the point when I had to start loading our gear and throw her in the back. Since we moved, I haven't heard another peep out of her."
Knowing so little about the underlying illness that had started this entire epidemic, Garrett had no idea if that was a positive sign or not, for the time being she was still alive and if they could keep her that way he wanted to do all they could for her, "Ok, well, let’s at least get her situated in the back, it will be more comfortable for her and probably safer in case one them were to manage to climb on while w
e are moving."
Working together they moved Garrett's camping equipment out of the back of the cab and situated it in the bed, then they carefully picked Kimberly up and stretched her out on the back seat after taking a pillow from the camping supplies and resting her head on it. Garrett worked the seat belts in the back so that they would hold her upper body and legs in place in case they had do any more rough driving. That being done, the two men organized the gear that Calvin had provided and distributed weapons and ammo so that both of them were as well armed and ready for action as possible.
#
She had watched as the truck pulled into the parking lot and parked a discreet distance away from the entrance to the store. A man who she judged to be in his early thirties got out from behind the wheel and went to the back of the truck were a slightly older man climbed out and began stretching and massaging his muscles next to the back of the truck. She was only able to see the driver clearly from where they were standing and it struck her that he was handsome man, a little rugged in a way that she was not often attracted to, but the way he moved with confidence and ease despite being in the middle of what looked like a war zone, automatically put her at ease in a way she had not felt before. She chided herself for actually taking an extra couple of seconds to size him up in a manner that she thought of as sexual in nature, taking an overview of his body shape and size as well as an approving and lingering glance at the tight form of a well-defined ass nicely framed in a pair of fitted slacks. She looked away from him and checked up the street, not so much as to look for any signs of approaching danger but more to get her mind back on the here and now and to stop letting herself indulge in a fantasy that was just not appropriate given the circumstances. Turning back to the two men, she continued to size them up from her hiding place and worked to pick up any clues about who they were and where they may have come from that could possibly give her an advantage. Neither of the two men appeared to be dressed in a way that would indicate they were with the police or any other official from an organization that might be involved in rescue efforts. They looked like just regular people who were caught up in the same frightening ordeal that she had awoken and found herself in the middle of. She started to feel a little uneasy when the man who had climbed from the back of the truck reached back into the cargo section and pulled out a long and menacing looking rifle, he fiddled with it for a little bit and then expertly slung it over his shoulder as if it was an action he was very comfortable doing. She now started to think that maybe the men were soldiers, the way they carried themselves and how they scanned their surroundings every few seconds, one of them would look left and the other right the entire time they were talking. After a few moments they began moving bags and pieces of equipment from the back seat of the cab to the inside of the truck and arranging it out of her sight in the cargo section. The cute one then dropped the tailgate door, easing it down gently to keep it as quiet as he could and together they reached inside and she saw them step gingerly down carrying a woman. It looked to Miranda like she was hurt, maybe unconscious but definitely not helping at all while she was being moved. They placed her across the seats on the inside of the cab and then the one with the nice ass spent a few moments carefully adjusting her, giving her a pillow and strapping her securely inside with the seatbelts. The way that he handled her so gently and caringly, it really struck home with Miranda that in the midst of all the death and destruction around them that he took the extra little bit of time to ensure she was comfortable and cared for. She wondered if perhaps that was his girlfriend or wife and actually felt a twinge of regret if that turned out to be the case. After finishing with the woman, both men rummaged around in the back of the truck, they passed items back and forth and then the cute one stood up also holding a rifle like his friends, he repeated the same inspection she had seen earlier with the other guy, but this time he cradled the rifle comfortably in his arms, not as if threatened, but in a position that convinced Miranda he was ready to bring it up to use it in a split second if need be.
