“I don’t think that we’ll be able to get back across that creek, from this direction,” I said to Spec-4.
“Yeah, I remember,” she said. “We pretty much fell off the other side of it. We’d better find another way back.”
“There’s a gun store to the south of us. If we go that way, we might be able to scavenge.”
“Do we have the room?” said Spec-4.
“Damn it, probably not. But I’ll go this way when I get my family. I can hit it then. Take everything I can, that way I’m not taking away too many supplies from the jail.”
I started sweeping the area south of us, again. The zombies that were near the apartment complex were mostly milling around west of that intersection. There were quite a few moving in and around the cars. Even though there were a lot of abandoned cars, I could see openings where I could either squeeze or force my way through. Our only hard part would be the intersection at Campbell and Weaver.
“We go south,” I said.
I tucked the binocs back into my rucksack and climbed down off of the Humvee. Spec-4 continued to cover the area as I walked over the where Southard was parked. He rolled down the window as I approached.
“So what’s up?” he asked.
“I think we’re going to try going south.”
“South to the next road or south to the lake?” he asked, smiling.
“Damn it, Chuck,” I said, frowning. “You know how bad I want to go get them. I have to get everyone to safety, first. Every time it looks like I have a window to go, something else comes up. I have to convince myself that they’re safer than we are.”
“I’m sorry, Wylie,” said Southard. “I didn’t mean anything by it. I was just messing with you. I know you’re going to go for them. Hell, I’m coming with you. They’re probably safer than any of us, anyway. The boat idea was pretty damned smart.”
“I hope so,” I said. “I spent so much time restoring that old thing, I’m glad it’s finally paying for itself.”
“Have you tried calling them, lately?”
“I tried last night and again this morning. Phones are out. No signal at all.”
“Same with mine,” he said. “Can I ask you a question? And I want you to tell me the truth.”
“Anything, Chuck,” I said.
“What was the deal with all of those bodies, back there at the church?”
Then it hit me like a ton of bricks. I felt like I was going to be sick. Chuck had sent his wife and kids to the Evac-center. How could I tell a friend that his wife and two daughters may have been executed by the very Army we both served in? How could I not tell him? But, I didn’t know for sure. They could have gotten out on one of the flights. He told me that they were waiting on a flight, maybe they made it out. In my heart, I knew they didn’t.
“Chuck…” I stammered, unsure of what to say next. “That guy you shot was an M.I. Colonel. He said that this was now a Containment Zone. No one in or out.”
“Yeah, we heard that yesterday,” he replied. “The guy in that helo told us that when we left the National Guard Armory.”
I had forgotten about that. It seemed like so long ago, now. So much had happened in the last two days.
“Well, Chuck,” I said. “That’s what they did to contain us.”
Southard looked confused for a few seconds, but I could see it on his face when he realized what I meant. The color drained from his face and he seemed to almost shrink into himself.
“Wylie,” he managed to say, his voice thick with emotion. “Please tell me that doesn’t mean what I think it means.”
“I’m afraid it does, Chuck,” I said, softly. “But we don’t know when they did it. Melodi and the girls could very well be in Texas right now. We have no way to know for sure.”
Chuck let that sink in for a second, emotion raw on his face.
“What does your heart tell you?”
“That they’re gone,” he said flatly, tears in the corners of his eyes. “They killed them.”
“But we don’t know that for sure.”
“Yes, we do. Do you know how long it would have taken to kill that many people?”
“Quite a while,” I said. “They could have left yesterday, before it all happened.”
“We both know that they would have cancelled all out-going flights once it was classified as a containment zone,” he replied, his tone eerily calm.
“We don’t know for sure when the containment order was given,” I said, trying desperately to find some hope. “We just don’t know.”
“Come on, Wylie,” he said. “They killed all of those people to contain something that they can’t fucking contain. They’ll kill all of us before they let us leave.”
“They can try,” I said, anger rising in my voice.
“Come on,” he snapped, anger rising in his voice. “They won’t come fight us. They’ll bomb us. We won’t stand a chance.”
“We don’t know that, either,” I said, “I’m not giving up. Not now, not ever.”
“I should have sent them to the lake with your family.”
“Chuck,” I said, a little harshly. “Don’t do this! Keep it together! You can’t do that to yourself. We just don’t fucking know what’s going on. They might be fine, we might be fine. This isn’t over yet!”
Southard looked at me blankly, blinking his eyes rapidly. Then he took a deep breath and sighed.
“Ok, Wylie,” he said, looking down. “We’ve got to get through this. I understand that. But…”
“I know,” I interrupted. “I know, Chuck. If there’s any way in the world, we’ll find out what happened. Find out the truth. And we’ll make them pay for what they did, too.”
Chuck nodded once, and then closed his eyes for a second.
“I’m with you, Wylie,” he said, solemnly. “To the end.”
“Good,” I said, “Because I need you. I can’t do this alone.”
“Guys!” shouted Spec-4. “I hate to break this up, but we’ve got contact coming in from the north. ETA less than two minutes.”
“Let’s move out,” I said, not just to Chuck.
“I’m right behind you,” he said. “I’ve got your back.”
I nodded to him and turned for the Humvee. I could see what Spec-4 was talking about. The zombies had gotten through the traffic near James River far faster than I thought they would. Close to a hundred of them were less than fifty yards on the other side of the parking lot, and closing. The leaders, made up of Sprinters, would be here well before the rest. Nearly thirty Sprinters could do some damage, both to us and to our ammo supply.
I ran to the driver’s side and jumped back in. Spec-4 was already locking her door. I fired up the engine and put it in gear. With a quick wave at Southard, I headed out of the parking lot and south down the outer road. Southard followed suit, sticking close enough to me that we wouldn’t get separated. When I reached the intersection by the stoplight, I knew that trying to go out onto Campbell was a complete waste of time. There were just too many cars clogging the road. So, instead I continued on down the outer road.
There was construction going on in this section of the outer road, but I drove through the road closed sign and continued on. The little bridge on the outer road was undergoing some renovations, but it wasn’t demolished. I had to go around some heavy equipment, but the road was clear all the way to the next road. It was only a small side road, but had been heavily blocked with traffic.
From there, things were going to get dicey. The intersection was pretty much blocked, but I could see where there were only two cars between us and the other side of the outer road. That was where I was going to force our way through. I slowed down and rolled up to a little green four door. I could see that there was still a body inside. It moved as we pulled right up to it. It was a zombie, still buckled into the seatbelt. I named them Grabbers.
It turned and tried to reach us, but was trapped inside the vehicle. My guess is that someone was bitten and tried to get awa
y, either to get to a hospital or just to run. This was as far as they made it. It was a shame, too. She might have been attractive in life. Now, she was just another zombie that wanted to dine on our flesh. Once our bumper made contact with the side of her vehicle, I mashed the accelerator to the floor. The big engine roared and the wheels started digging in.
I didn’t want to just ram it, for fear of damaging the Humvee to the point of not being able to drive it. So, I kept pushing and the car started sliding to the side. Once I had pushed it beyond the line of traffic, I turned the wheels slightly and shoved it into the ditch. It slid into the grass and soft earth and rolled over onto the top of the vehicle. The zombie was still inside, comically hanging upside down…but still trying to reach out and grab us, with single-minded tenacity. Then we were clear.
Once I straightened out, I accelerated on down the outer road. There were cars along this side, but nothing completely obstructing the road. I hit several zombies that tried to get to us, and kept right on going. A zombie does absolutely no damage to an Up-armored Humvee when the two collide. Southard stayed right behind us, like a running back following his blocker.
I slowed down near the strip mall at the top of the hill. There was a gun store at the back. We didn’t have room to take on any additional supplies, but I needed to know if it was worth coming back to. I shot into the parking lot and into the midst of about ten zombies. I considered avoiding them, but thought that Southard might get bogged down by them. Better to knock them aside for him.
After blasting through the knot of zombies, I headed to the back of the lot. Sitting at the end of one arm of the strip mall, the gun store stood there like a bastion. Bars on the windows insured that even the most determined zombie was not getting inside. It worked pretty well on looters, too. Well enough that the place looked intact. I put that bit of information away for future use and headed back out to the road. A quick smash through another knot of zombies and we were back onto the outer road.
“So,” said Spec-4, grinning. “How are you planning on getting past the bars?”
“Tow chain attached to the bumper,” I replied, without thinking.
“That should do it,” she said. “Are you sure you’re not a criminal? You came up with that awfully fast.”
“You planning on robbing a gun store?” asked Sergeant Daniels, from the back seat.
“Robbing is such a bad word,” I said, chuckling. “Since everything has gone to hell, I think of it more as aggressive shopping. I’ve been putting a lot of thought into this, lately.”
“Good point,” he said. “I don’t think that normal rules apply anymore.”
“I’d agree,” said Maddie. “With the dead walking the earth, I don’t think that the usual rules of decorum and etiquette apply.”
“How’s the Sarge?” I asked Maddie.
“He’s not in too bad of shape,” she replied. “He’ll mend. He’s going to hurt for a while, but nothing is broken and he hasn’t been bitten. At least not in any place I’ve seen.”
“Not in any place you haven’t seen, either,” said Sergeant Daniels, defensively.
“That’s good, sir. We need you up and mobile.”
“I hear that able bodied people are in pretty short supply,” he replied.
“Yeah,” said Spec-4. “We have more guns than hands to use them.”
“Well, at least we’re well armed,” he said.
“We’ve got food, ammo and guns,” I said. “But most of the people at the jail either can’t fight or don’t know how.”
“Who’s in charge?” asked Sergeant Daniels.
“That would be Wylie,” said Spec-4.
“Wylie?” asked Daniels, incredulously. “You’re the highest rank we have? I guess that means it’s me, now.”
“Well, about that, sir,” I said. “I kind of out-rank you, now.”
“How’s that?” he asked, suddenly serious. “Did you promote yourself?”
“It’s a long story,” I said, avoiding the question.
“He’s the Sheriff, now,” said Spec-4, flashing me a wicked grin.
“What?” said Daniels.
“Well,” I stammered, glaring at Spec-4. “We found Sheriff Hawkins. He was dying. He gave me the badge and told me to keep it going. I tried to give it to Lieutenant Murdock, but he told me to keep it. He told me that I should keep leading people, since I’d been doing it since this all started. I’m not sure why.”
Daniels sat and digested this while I drove in silence. We made it to the intersection of the outer road where it met Plainview. The intersection was completely blocked. There was an empty lot on my right that had once been a convenience store, so I turned into it. I wanted to go west on Plainview, but it was blocked for almost a hundred yards leading into the intersection.
I crossed the empty lot and slid into the parking lot of the business behind it. I had to drive through the grass, but it was better than driving on the road. I bounced though the parking lot of a fraternal lodge and into the grass on the other side. Then I hopped a curb into a parking lot of an apartment building. That was nearly my undoing.
What I didn’t see was that there was a crowd of almost fifty zombies just past one of the apartment buildings. I was almost on top of them before I even saw them. Fortunately, we were past the majority of the traffic. Southard saw it before I did and swerved out and into the road. He skidded around a parked lumber truck and continued west.
I slammed full on into the crowd of zombies. It was almost like hitting a brick wall. Only the fact that I never took my foot off of the accelerator saved us. If I had, we would’ve ground to a halt, and they would have swarmed us. I managed to mangle about ten of them, before I knocked back a significant number of the others. I turned hard to the left and mashed the pedal to the floor.
There was a crunch and a metallic shriek as I broadsided a parked small pick-up. I thought that I had done major damage to the Humvee, but it just kept going. The pick-up, on the other hand, wasn’t so lucky. I knocked it sideways and into a tree, almost flipping it over. Then it slowly rolled back the other way. It fell on the group of zombies that were attempting to recover and swarm the back of the fleeing Humvee.
Once again, blind luck had saved us. If it had rolled sooner, we would have gotten stuck and swarmed with zombies. A hard bounce through the ditch and we were on Plainview, pulling in a few car lengths behind Southard. He slowed down and let us pass him as we climbed a hill. I waved at him as we went past him and he mouthed to me.
“Are you fucking crazy?”
“Yes, he is,” replied Spec-4, nodding emphatically.
As we topped the hill, I could see the gate to one of those “gated” communities on our left. The gates were closed and I could see twenty or so well dressed zombies on the inside trying to force the gate open. I remember passing this place many times before, and the gates open inward. They weren’t going to be getting out any time soon. Beyond the gated community was a grade school. I silently prayed that it had been empty when the zombies came. I don’t think I could handle seeing a large crowd of small zombie children.
My plan was to go back north once we cleared the elementary school. I could take the back roads most of the way across town, so long as I avoided the Catholic Church. I didn’t want to risk running into any teams left behind by the helicopters. Then I realized that I was almost where my in-laws lived, and I had promised my wife that I would check on them. I started re-drawing the map in my head.
Ragnarok Rising: The Awakening (Book One of The Ragnarok Rising Saga) Page 32
