Mike felt more than the occasional twinge of guilt when he thought of how they had pillaged the farm. What would the residents think when they got home?
That thought sobered him. It wasn’t so much “when” they got home as it was “if.” Since leaving the farm, they had encountered several of the wandering corpses. That meant that the undead plague had overtaken the farm. Perhaps not yet overrun, but definitely overtaken. The walking dead they had seen in the fields since they left could very well have been the former residents of the farm itself.
Mike made a silent pledge that, if things returned to normal, he would do his best to find the farm owners and repay everything they had taken. He truly hoped it would come to that.
The Scouts were surprisingly upbeat; the stopover at the farm had done wonders. Lots of food and water and an even bigger dose of reality helped almost everyone. Kyle was reading a book in the passenger seat while Todd and Martin were busy talking to Ricky through the window to the truck’s canopy. From the sounds of it, they were telling every goofy story they knew to keep the boy awake and aware.
Mike continued to watch, hoping and praying that he would see signs of life. Maybe people in a yard doing normal, everyday things, or a farmer working in the field on his tractor.
Nothing.
With each passing kilometre, Mike felt a heaviness pushing him down. What if the boys were right? What if they were the only ones left?
He mulled that thought over for a while. The world was a very big place. One Scout troop left alive from the billions of people across the planet? To think that they were the only ones in the whole world who were still alive…well, that was pretty unlikely, to put it mildly.
So, Mike drove, and watched, and hoped.
The troop was only a few kilometres away from the next large town, Cochrane, when Steve signalled all vehicles to pull over. Mike stopped the truck and got out to talk to Steve.
“What’s going on, Steve? I thought we were going to drive right on through.”
Steve shook his head. “I’ve been thinking. We tried that in Water Valley and we lost a leader and several Scouts. We were just lucky to find the second group or it would have been much worse.” Steve’s eyes looked haunted.
“So, what’s the plan, then?” Mike asked as Shaun joined them.
“I think we need to check out the town. Maybe find a high point and check things out with binoculars,” Steve said.
"Who would you suggest do the checking?" Shaun asked. "I'll be honest with you - I don't relish the idea of going off alone. What would I do with my guys, for example? Neither of you has room for them and, after last time, I wouldn't be willing to take them with me."
"I can understand that," Steve said. "I don't really like the idea of going in, either. I know Stan was really freaked out by the whole thing. Truthfully, so was I."
Mike saw the fear that lurked behind the eyes of the two men. Fear he knew he shared.
"What I'm hearing you two asking is if I will volunteer," Mike said. "Tell me I'm wrong."
Steve shrugged. "I'm not going to ask you to do it, but if you don't, I'm thinking it won't get done."
"No, you are probably right," Mike said. "And we all know that we aren't safe just sitting here."
Steve shrugged again. "I can't argue with what you're saying. I wish I could, but I can't."
Mike shook his head. "I guess my guys and I are going on a reconnaissance mission, then."
"You would take the boys with you?" Shaun asked.
"It's like you said, Shaun - where else would they go? Neither of you has room for them. Besides, these boys have already shown themselves to be more than capable. If something happens to me, any one of them could take over." Mike thought about what he had just said. "Well, maybe not Ricky, but he's hurt. I don't think Martin is willing to be separated from his younger brother, though."
"So, when will you go?" Shaun asked.
"No time like the present," Mike said. He shook the hands of both men. "Wish me luck!" he said cheerfully. But even he could hear the falseness in his tone.
"Good luck, Mike," Steve said, his voice somber. "Here." The man handed Mike a binocular case. "I'm sure these will come in handy."
Mike looked at the case. He knew the binoculars were one of Steve's most prized possessions. They were much better than his. "Are you sure, Steve?"
"I'm sure. We need that information and you need to stay as far from danger as possible. Just come back safely, okay?"
"You got it. Thanks, Steve," Mike said, taking the binoculars from the man. "I'll see you guys soon."
"We'll be here," Shaun said. "Or near enough, if trouble comes knocking."
Mike nodded and climbed into the truck. He looked at the boys in the seats. "Guys, we are going to go on a little Scouting mission." He smiled a little at his own words. "We need to know what's out there, so we're going to go ahead of the others and take a look."
"What about the others, Dad?" Kyle asked.
"They are going to wait here until we come back." He looked closely at each of the boys. "If any of you want to stay behind, speak now. I won't think any less of you."
Kyle looked at his fellow Scouts. "We're coming, Dad."
"I'm coming too," came a voice from the canopy of the truck.
Ricky. Mike had almost forgotten about him.
"Are you sure?" Mike asked. "You are hurt, after all."
Ricky squeezed through the window into the truck. "I'm sure. You guys need me, so I'm coming."
Mike smiled; the first real smile since leaving the camp, and shook his head. "You guys are the bravest boys…no, young men… I've ever known. Thank you for having faith in me and coming along."
"We believe in you, Dad. You have never steered us wrong."
"That's right, Scouter Mike," Martin said. "And we have already figured out how to deal with those things."
"Yes, you sure have," Mike agreed. He put the truck into gear. "Let's see what we can find!"
***
It was bad.
Mike looked down on what had once been the thriving small city of Cochrane. The city still existed, but thriving wasn't a word he could use to describe it any longer. Where families once walked, lived and loved, only devastation and death existed; houses and cars burned and a cloud of dark smoke rose into the air.
He put down the binoculars and leaned against the truck. What were they going to do? He climbed back into the truck and stared out through the spiderweb of cracks in the windshield. When had the nightmare begun?
Tiny figures down at the base of the hill below wandered in apparent confusion, occasionally stopping to lean over a still bundle on the ground as if to comfort an injured friend.
Mike wished he could believe it was comfort that was being offered. In the past few hours he had come to understand just how wrong that impression was. The windshield and gore-encrusted truck gave mute testimony to that. Bits of hair and meat were embedded in the grill and Mike thought there might be a finger stuck in the bumper.
He wiped a tear away. Was there any point in going on? The odds against survival seemed so high. Maybe giving in to the chaos was the only sane thing left to do.
"Scouter Mike?" a young voice from the back seat called.
That would be Ricky again. Mike ignored him and continued to look out at the devastation, despair growing in his mind with each passing moment.
"Dad? Are you okay?" the boy beside him asked, shaking his arm.
Mike focused on him. "Hmm? Oh, Kyle? Sorry!" He shook his head, finally seeing his son.
The boy, a young man, really, with just the beginnings of a moustache, looked afraid, but determined. Mike looked at the three other boys, all the same age as his son, in the rear-view mirror of the truck. They too looked both afraid and determined.
That determination pushed his feelings of doubt and self-pity aside. "Sorry, guys. For a moment there, I wasn't sure what to do next."
Kyle kept hold of his father's arm. "We need you, Dad
. Stay with us. You taught us about survival and survival shelters all weekend. We'll just have to use what we learned a little sooner than we expected."
“Yeah, Scouter Mike. It’s not like it is the end of the world.” Ricky added. He was trying to be funny, but his comment sounded just a little bit desperate.
Kyle laughed and the other boys joined him. The laughter was forced, but it was there.
Out of the chaos, that little bit of order brought Mike fully back from the edge. Of course, Kyle was right. They were Scouts and it was their oath to help make their community and world at large a better place. This really was no different. Just a lot bigger problem than any of them had ever imagined.
“Okay, boys. The first thing we need to do is get back to the others and figure out just what we can do.” He flipped the truck into gear and began backing it away from the view of Cochrane. The next few hours would be the real test.
Chapter 15
The Scouts were once again on the road, this time with Mike in the lead. The other two vehicles drove side-by-side immediately behind him. They looked like a wedge driving down the highway.
Somehow, during the reconnaissance, Steve and Shaun had decided that Mike was in charge. That was uncomfortable; Mike much preferred to take a back-seat spot and assist as needed. Calling the shots was an opportunity to fail, and Mike detested failure.
He grudgingly did it, though. The other two men hadn't given him much choice, just like they had railroaded him into checking out Cochrane in the first place.
So, they drove toward a city that looked to be completely populated by the undead. The only saving grace was that all three vehicles were completely fuelled up, courtesy of the last farm they had passed.
"Okay, guys. We are coming up on Cochrane." Mike watched the boys carefully for their reactions. "It's going to get pretty busy for the next while. I expect we are going to have to drive through and over crowds of the undead. It won't be pleasant."
"We know, Dad," Kyle said. "It will be just like Water Valley where they tried to get into the truck as we drove through town."
"I'm afraid it will be worse," Mike said.
"That's because there were a lot more people in Cochrane than there were in Water Valley, isn't it?" Martin asked.
Mike met Martin's eyes in the rear-view mirror. "That's right, Martin. And, for some reason, there seems to be a pretty big concentration of them where we enter the town."
"So what do we do?" Todd asked, from the back seat.
"We're going to drive through them like I said. I'm putting the truck into four-wheel drive and we are going to push them out of the way. I'll try to go fast enough that they can't break in, but slow enough that they won't fly over the hood and through the windshield."
"Oh," Todd said. He looked like he might be sick.
Mike had an idea. "There IS something else we can do to get ready. Ricky, do you think you can push a few blankets through the window into the truck?"
"Sure thing," the boy replied. Ricky's eyes still had a tendency to lose focus and his speech was thick from the head injury, but he was eager enough. Hopefully, none of the damage was permanent.
Ricky pushed the first of the blankets through the window. Martin pulled it into the cab of the truck and looked carefully at it. "Why the blankets, Scouter Mike?"
Two reasons" Mike said, as yet another blanket came through the window. "The first is to keep the dead from seeing into the truck. Maybe if they don't see you, they will leave us alone."
Ricky popped his head in through the window. "Is that enough blankets?"
"A couple more, please, Ricky," Mike said.
"You got it!" He disappeared into the canopy of the truck.
"What's the other reason, Dad?" Kyle asked.
"Well, I figure if they do smash a window, the blankets should protect us from the broken glass and help keep the dead out. It's not perfect, but it should help.
Kyle nodded. "That makes sense, Dad."
Mike shrugged. "I don't know if it will work or not, but it can't hurt. When we get closer to town, you will need to secure the blankets up through the tops of the side windows. Just roll the windows down a little, push the blankets though the top and roll them back up, okay?"
"You got it, Scouter Mike," Todd replied, just a little too eagerly.
***
The three Scout vehicles slowed, barely doing twenty kilometres per hour, as they approached the city limits. They had already passed many shuffling corpses for several minutes but hadn't had to drive through any.
The boys held blankets up against the side windows of Mike's truck. Only the front driver's side window and windshield were uncovered. Mike knew the other two vehicles were much the same.
"Okay, guys. We're coming up on a group of them now." Up ahead, twenty metres or so, a couple dozen crossed the road in a grisly procession.
Mike slowed the truck further and his two companion vehicles did the same, keeping their 'V' formation.
They were almost upon the group. The creatures looked up toward the vehicles, almost as a single being.
Suddenly, the group split so the vehicles could pass unimpeded. If they had any expressions, Mike would have sworn they were afraid.
"Why did they do that, Dad?" Kyle asked.
"Do what?" Todd asked from the back seat. He craned his neck to look past the passenger seat.
"Don't let that blanket drop," Mike warned. "To answer your questions, the creatures moved out of the way of the vehicles and I don't know why."
"Maybe these ones are smarter than the ones we have seen before," Ricky said from the back seat.
"Could be, Ricky," Mike said. As he spoke, another group of undead turned their heads in the direction of the truck as it neared them. Then they shuffled out of the way without a second glance.
"It's weird," Kyle said.
"I agree," Mike replied. "But it's the first piece of good luck we've had." He watched the other Scout vehicles through the truck's mirrors. For some reason, Shaun had slowed further and was beginning to fall behind.
"What is Shaun doing?" Mike asked under his breath.
Shaun was now almost come to a stop. Mike slowed further, but the gap between the vehicles increased.
Suddenly, the undead turned and swarmed Shaun.
"Damn!" Mike slammed on the brakes and threw the truck into reverse. He backed up toward Shaun.
As the truck neared, the creatures once again looked toward him and shuffled off. Mike backed up until he could see Shaun through the passenger window.
Shaun's van was more dented than before and one of the rear windows was smashed. "What's going on, Shaun? Why are you slowing down?"
"I've got a flat front tire," Shaun replied.
"And you decided to stop to change it here?" Mike asked, incredulously.
Shaun's expression was hurt. "Well, they had been avoiding us until now. I thought it might be safe."
That was too much. "Are you nuts? Drive the wheels off that thing if you have to, but don't stop again until we are out of town, okay? You do have a spare tire, right."
Shaun looked ashamed. "Yeah, I've got a spare. Sorry, Mike."
Shaun's apology surprised Mike. "Okay, Shaun. Let's just get through this town safely and then we can get you fixed up, okay?"
"You got it."
Mike put the truck back into drive and pulled back into his position at the front the V. He kept his speed down to allow Shaun to keep up.
As before, the walking dead got out of the way of the convoy. It was very peculiar.
But Mike wasn't about to question their luck. Maybe it was a sign of things getting better. He truly hoped so.
Chapter 16
They kept driving until they were well outside the town. It was an uneventful, if extremely nerve-wracking drive, for which everyone was very grateful. Mike didn't see a single living person the entire time.
When they had driven for a few minutes without seeing any more shuffling corpses, Mike slowed
the truck to a stop.
"You guys take a minute to stretch your legs and have something to eat. If you need a bathroom break, now is the time. Just don't go alone and holler if you see anything, okay?"
"You got it, Scouter Mike," Martin said.
Mike got out and went to Shaun's van. The man was just digging the spare tire and a jack out of the back.
"Sorry I snapped at you, Shaun," Mike said. He looked at the van's tire. It was completely shredded.
Shaun looked at him and smiled. "No, you were right to do it. I should have known better. I put everyone at risk."
"Well, no sense dwelling on it now," Mike said. "We're through and everyone is safe." He thought about that for a moment. "Your guys are all safe, right?"
Shaun slipped the jack under van and started to lift the vehicle. "Yeah, they're fine. A little rattled, but good otherwise."
"Good. Let's get that tire off and changed."
Steve joined the two men and they had the tire changed very quickly. Martin, Todd, and Kyle took watch around the vehicles to ensure nothing caught them unaware.
Shaun was just tightening the last wheel lug when Todd called out. "There is one of the undead coming down the highway toward us."
"How far, Todd?" Mike called back.
"Thirty metres, maybe," Todd said. "It just showed up over a hill or I would have seen it sooner. It's moving pretty fast."
"I think that's our cue," Mike said to his fellow Scouters. "Just leave the old wheel behind."
"That's weird," Todd said.
"What's going on, Todd?" Mike asked.
"The creature. It was coming closer and suddenly turned back and went into the ditch. It had to have seen us. And the ditch is full of deep water. I can only see its head right now."
"That I've got to see," Mike said. He went around Shaun's van over to where Todd stood. Sure enough, the undead creature, once a man, was slowly moving away from them through the deep water with only its head showing.
Martin and Kyle stood watching too, looking as baffled as Mike felt.
"That is really odd," Mike said. "These things have been so consistent in the way they behave right up until we hit Cochrane. That is, they see us and attack. Now they are avoiding us. I don't understand. What has changed?"
Scouts of the Apocalypse: Zombie Plague Page 9
