“Hey, we work hard and we play hard,” I said, in mock defensiveness.
We stayed on the highway until it merged with Missouri A, then we turned left. We followed this until it reached another highway where we turned left again. We followed that until we were just outside the town of Galena. Then we sped right onto another highway. We’d driven through a lot of country side, without seeing much in the way of civilization. It was mostly farms. That was good for us, since that meant that we didn’t have a lot of zombies to contend with. There was just the occasional abandoned car or wreck.
Unfortunately, this road took us right into the town of Galena. Although it was significantly bigger than Jamesville, Galena was still pretty small with a population of about five hundred. Unfortunately, that was plenty big enough to cause us problems if it had been overrun by zombies. If a Podunk little town like Jamesville had zombies in it, then you could bet your ass that they were everywhere.
Galena lived up to my worst fears. There were zombies all over the damned place. Thankfully, the road was mostly clear. There were abandoned cars and a few wrecks, but they were far enough apart that we could avoid them. We blew through Galena, leaving it to the dead. If anyone was left alive, then they were on their own. We didn’t have the manpower to mount a rescue with that kind of opposition. It looked like the entire town had been turned. Did anyone even try to get out?
I was driving purely on memory, now. I wasn’t paying attention to the road signs, anymore. I was just following my mental map of the route I’d taken to the lake so many times before. I knew I had to turn left at the little Crossroads Store and that would take us into Cape Fair. We always stopped there for sodas and snacks with the boys. It was a nice little place, ran by an elderly couple who always greeted their customers with a smile and a kind word. I really hoped that they made it out.
I just kept hoping that we hadn’t gone all this way for nothing. If the bridge was still there, we’d be fine. If it was gone, we had a long way to go to get around the lake. But as my daddy was fond of saying, “We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.” I’m not sure that was what he had in mind, but what the hell. At our current pace, I knew it was going to be early evening before we reached the lake. That wasn’t good for us, since I had no intention of spending the night there.
The boat would be a safe place, but it was already well over capacity. Between my family, my sister-in-law and her daughters, and Kris Newberry’s daughter, it was full. Not to mention, I never found out what happened to my in-laws. They could be there too, for all I knew. The boat was designed to sleep six. There were at least eight people and two dogs on board. There was no way we could squeeze in seven more.
We had the choice of driving in the dark, or find a place to hold up until morning. Once the sun came up, we could go in and get them out. We’d have enough light left to make it back to the jail before sundown, if our luck held. Considering those two options, I decided that we’d be better off finding a safe place to hide out for the night. I didn’t like it, but it was one of those things that you did out of necessity, not out of desire.
“New plan,” I said. “Keep your eyes peeled for a place where we can pull the vehicles inside and lockdown for the night.”
“Why?” she asked. “We’re almost there.”
I explained my reasons and she agreed with me. It wouldn’t be good to arrive too late to extract everyone. Even Southard agreed. The real trick would be finding a place big enough to pull the vehicles inside of that we could defend. I preferred one that wasn’t already crawling with zombies. We’d be lucky to find something that would fit the bill. I’d be on the alert for warehouses, machine shops and large garages.
We had to keep our speed at around 30 miles per hour, to avoid surprises. Several times we had to stop and clear debris out of the road. Abandoned cars, two wrecks and one tractor had to be moved out of the way. Thankfully, each time there were only a few zombies around and we dealt with them easily. Our only close call was at the tractor, when the old man pinned beneath the front wheels turned out to not be as dead as we had thought. Spec-4 put him down with a combat knife.
We were nearly to the long bridge on the outskirts of Cape Fair when I found what we were looking for. There was a tool and die place on the left hand side of the road. The main building had big doors and would accommodate the Humvees. They were heavy industrial doors, so I wasn’t concerned that the zombies could get through them. There were some windows, but I was sure that we could find something to cover them with. They were also high enough on the walls to make them difficult to reach.
“What about that place?” I asked, pointing.
“Looks good to me,” replied Spec-4.
There were only a couple zombies milling around the parking lot. I ran over them, just to take them out of the equation. It wasn’t really going to do any damage to the Humvee and it would save on ammo. That’s the very definition of a win-win scenario.
“Chuck,” I said, “you and John cover us while we check out the building.”
“Copy that,” he replied.
Spec-4 and I got out and approached the front of the building. It looked like offices inside. The door was locked and all of the windows appeared to be intact. That was good. With the butt of my AA-12, I knocked out part of the window to the front door. Then I reached inside and unlocked the door. With a nod to Spec-4, I went inside and swept to the left. She followed me in, sweeping to the right. No zombies charged us or came shambling our way. The sun lit up the offices fairly well, but the rest of the place wouldn’t be as well lit. I switched on my tactical light and started checking doors. Spec-4 followed along with me, ready for anything.
Once we were satisfied that the offices were empty, we headed into the shop. It was dark, but the tactical lights lit up the darkness. I didn’t see any movement. There were a lot of racks of metal and machinery inside, but there was plenty of room to drive the Humvees in and still shut the door.
I moved over to the shop door and started pulling the chain to open it. It didn’t take long for it to roll up high enough to bring in the vehicles. It also let in a lot of light, making it easier to clear the rest of the shop. Finding no zombies inside, we went around and got back inside our Humvee. I fired up the engine and pulled around to the back, then drove inside. I drove to the far side of the shop and stopped by the opposite door. Southard followed us and stopped just behind our back bumper. Once we shut down the engines, I returned to the main door and lowered it all the way down.
While Southard broke out the battery-powered lanterns, we set about securing the interior. We swept the offices again, looking for anything useful. Other than a water cooler, a soda machine and a snack machine, there really wasn’t much there but office supplies. We put desks over all of the windows and the front door and backed them up with filing cabinets and anything else that looked heavy.
Southard broke open the snack machine with an office chair and we emptied it. We were pondering a way to get inside the soda machine when we found about fifty cases of soda in a storage closet. The key to the machine was hanging on a hook in the storage closet, along with the keys to the snack machine and extra bottles for the water cooler. There were several cases of snacks to refill the machine, as well. We took all of that.
In the little break room, we found a refrigerator that we weren’t sure we wanted to open. It had been days since the power went off and we were pretty sure that whatever was inside wouldn’t be remotely edible. In a cabinet we found several boxes of microwave popcorn and boxes of snack crackers. There were several cans of coffee and filters. The coffee maker was on the counter. Without electricity, it was next to useless.
Once back in the shop we sealed off the door to the offices, just in case. Then I backed a forklift up to the door. That pretty much took care of sealing that door. There was another door which opened onto the back of the building. We sealed that one by rolling a few big toolboxes in front of it. We were confident that we were secur
e, at least enough to last the night. It wasn’t pretty, but it would hold.
Inside the shop was an employee’s bathroom that had a single stall shower in it. The water was surprisingly still hot. It turned out that the water heater was run from a big propane tank in the back. We could at least clean up and flush the toilet. That was more welcome than I realized. Despite feeling secure, we kept the noise to a minimum and posted a guard. So long as we stayed quiet, we probably wouldn’t attract any zombies. At least I hoped so, anyway.
Since no one wanted to be alone, we paired off and stayed together. Spec-4 and I paired off, as usual. I was actually looking forward to getting some sleep, but I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able. All I could think about was the sun coming up so I could go get my family. It was a long, sleepless night for me. My feelings of foreboding and danger continued to grow.
Chapter Twenty One
Reunion
“Every man's life ends the same way.
It is only the details of how he lived and how
he died that distinguish one man from another.”
- Ernest Hemmingway
08 April
We awoke early the next morning. I had set the alarm on my watch for 0600. I was excited this morning, eager to be with my family. I couldn’t wait for us to get moving. Our new arrivals weren’t much help, either. Pretty much all they did was eat and complain. Well, the brunette did. The blonde didn’t do or say much of anything.
She didn’t like the MRE’s, she didn’t like riding in the Humvees, and she demanded that we take them to the Branson Evac-center. Spec-4 wanted to dump them right here and leave them to fend for themselves. I wouldn’t hear of it, though. I might have changed my mind if they hadn’t had a kid with them. I felt sorry for John and Southard, though. They had to ride with them.
“They’re just scared,” I said. “We can cut them a little slack. If they keep it up, I’ll have a talk with them.”
“They’re pissing me off,” said Spec-4. “We should’ve left them in that shed.”
I just shook my head and walked off, chuckling. Spec-4 went back to checking and reloading weapons. John and Southard did a quick check of the vehicles, and refilled the tanks from the fuel cans. It took two cans to refill each Humvee. That cut our reserve fuel in half. It’s a good thing that we had the manual fuel pump.
John didn’t say much about the situation. He didn’t say much at all, really. I knew John had a lot on his mind and he’d talk when he was ready. I wasn’t going to push him, either. He just kept checking over his gear, making sure everything was in perfect order. Southard didn’t mind commenting about our newest arrivals. He flat out told me that he was tired of their complaining. You knew that it was bad when Southard got sick of pretty women.
We were all loaded up in the Humvees and ready to go by 0630. The sun was just coming up, so we wanted to wait a few more minutes before we hit the highway. We moved the forklift and Spec-4 and I went back into the offices to peek out the windows. From there, we saw about ten zombies milling around the front of the building. We didn’t see anything on either side, though. That was good. It meant that if we were quick, we could be out the door without firing a shot. When we returned to the shop, Southard and John were waiting for us.
“What’s it look like, out there?” asked Southard.
“About ten zombies wandering around in front.”
“Do you think they know we’re here?” asked Southard.
“Not likely,” said John, “or they’d be banging on the doors and trying to get inside.”
“Alright,” I said, “here’s the plan. Everyone load up in their vehicles. Wilder, you drive ours. I’ll open the door we’re facing and dive inside as soon as it’s open far enough to get out. Then we’re out of here without having to fire a shot. I want to keep the gunfire to a minimum. No sense in alerting the entire area that we’re here. Besides, there’s no sense wasting the ammo if we don’t have to.”
They all nodded agreement and headed for their respective vehicles. I moved up to the door and waited until everyone was secure. Spec-4 gave me a smile and thumbs up. Southard just nodded. They waited to fire up the engines until the door was open, to keep the noise level down. We wanted to keep from alerting the zombies until the last second.
I started pulling the chain as fast as I could. The door slowly rose into the air, and it seemed like it was making a lot of noise. It wasn’t opening fast enough, either. After what felt like ten minutes later, the door finally opened enough for us to drive through. I dove inside and shut the door without a moment to spare. Almost immediately, zombies appeared in the doorway.
Spec-4 fired up the engine and I heard Southard doing the same behind us. Then she put it in gear and drove over the first three zombies through the door. She turned sharply to the right and headed for the highway, knocking over two more zombies in the process. Southard had to swing a little wider, since he was pulling the trailer behind him. Seconds later, we were back on the highway and heading for the lake.
Less than ten minutes later, the sun was just getting full into the sky when we arrived at the long bridge. As it came fully into view, I held my breath in anticipation. It was mercifully intact. In fact, there was only one car on the bridge. It seemed to be parked in the middle and wasn’t even blocking the road. I noticed that the driver’s side door was standing open. I immediately wondered if the driver hadn’t merely driven to the middle of the bridge, and jumped off in despair. It was a depressing thought.
There were only a few zombies milling around. My biggest worry was being exposed on the bridge. If we were attacked by a helicopter, there was nowhere to go but into the water. Up-armored Humvees don’t float. Actually, they sink like a stone. We’d sink faster than the Titanic. Loaded down with body armor and weapons, I didn’t have much hope of treading water, either. Even if we did manage to get out of the vehicles before they sank.
Once we cleared the bridge, it was only a short distance to the town of Cape Fair. Before we made it into town, I was already seeing a lot of zombie activity. Over-turned cars, burnt out wrecks and dried blood on the roads. We drove past a zombie in either a police or security uniform. I didn’t recognize it, but I did notice that his radio mic was dragging the ground behind him. From the look of him, he’d been bitten several times on the face, neck and torso. Obviously he hadn’t been wearing any kind of body armor, not that it would have saved him.
“Stay on this road until we get to the other side of town,” I said. “We’re going out west of town. It’s a subdivision on a peninsula, overlooking the lake. There’s a private dock right by her house. That’s where I keep my boat.”
“Just tell me where to turn,” said Spec-4.
We drove through the little town of Cape Fair. It was always such a nice little town, but the zombies had caused massive carnage. The place was almost unrecognizable. Several businesses were burned out, cars abandoned all over the place, and a lot of blood on the ground in places. Everywhere you looked, there were the dead. For a town this small, there were a lot of zombies milling around.
“Why are there so many stinking zombies here?” asked Spec-4.
“The lake,” I replied. “This place is always busy when the weather is warm. Tourists and fishermen come here a lot.”
We had to keep moving and dodging obstacles. There were enough zombies around that we could easily have been swarmed. When the road cleared near a small supermarket, I told her to hit the gas. I wanted to put some distance between us and the crowd of zombies. I didn’t want them to see where we turned off. The last thing we needed was to attract a small army of the dead to follow us right to our destination. We had enough problems without adding that to the list.
She followed my directions and took us out on a country road, surrounded by thick trees and the occasional house or business. There were a few abandoned cars and dozens of zombies along the road. One of the cars was a Stone County patrol car. I didn’t see any sign of the deputy. The roa
d went past a resort and through more woods for another mile or so before we reached the subdivision. Once we reached it, you could see that the houses were nice. They weren’t very close together and they looked expensive. They weren’t multi-million dollar mansions, but they were really nice homes. We were starting to get glimpses of the lake, between the trees.
Ragnarok Rising: The Awakening (Book One of The Ragnarok Rising Saga) Page 56
