Beginning of the New Beginning, Vol. 2

by W. Joe Taylor

  “Yea, man, I’m so glad we finally made it. Sorry it took a week and a half longer than I expected.”

  “No worries. Another couple of days, and we would have been up shit creek. Look, Phillip told me what you went through to save them. I want to thank you for doing that. I’m sorry about Terry. I don’t know how I will ever repay you for your loss and saving my mom and brother.”

  “Yea, it was rough. As far as payback goes, don’t worry about it. I know that you’d do the same for me. And I’m really sorry about your dad and sister.”

  “Oh, you know I would, and don’t worry about it. I feel bad for having put you in that situation.”

  “It’s all good now. Listen, before we start making out and shit, let’s get you guys loaded up. We need to get out of here and find a place to stay for the night. Do you know of any nearby campgrounds? We all need to empty our waste tanks before we get much further.”

  “There is Turtle River State Park thirty minutes from here. We can stay there. It’s just up Highway 2, on the other side of the base.”

  “Sounds good.”

  “Uncle Bill!”

  Bill turned around to see a little boy about ten and a little girl about seven running towards him. He squatted down, and they barreled into him. All three landed in a heap just inside the mud room at the back door.

  “Hey, guys. Did you miss me?”

  “Oh yes, very much! Thank you for saving us from the bad people,” Alice replied.

  “You’re very welcome, sweetheart.”

  “Guys, get up. Let Uncle Bill up off the floor. We need to go soon, so make sure you have everything you want to go camping.”

  “Camping? Yay Bubba, we get to go camping with Uncle Bill!” Alice hopped up and started jumping up and down again.

  “That’s right. It’s going to be a lot of fun too. If you ask D real nice, she might have some marshmallows,” Q interjected.

  “YAY! I love cooking marshmallows on a stick!” Alice said with more excitement than before—Bill wasn’t sure how that was possible—and then the two kids ran off. He could hear them thumping up the stairs like a herd of elephants.

  A few minutes later, the whole family was loaded up and ready to go. They didn’t really have a lot of food left, and their suitcases had been packed for a few days now. They didn’t have a lot of clean clothes left, but Tess had brought the dirty laundry hamper in hopes that they would have time to wash it soon. She already had photo albums and other mementos set aside for when the time came that they would leave.

  Bill and Q filled everyone in on their overnight location when they got back to the convoy. They rolled down Thirteenth Street, and Q stopped before the alleyway so Cootch could slip in behind Bill. This time, Dennis turned right on Cherry Street, heading south. He went around to Washington again and made a beeline for Highway 2.

  At the intersection of Washington and Highway 2, Dennis had to push a few cars out the way and do some creative maneuvering to make a passage big enough for his rig and Behemoth to fit through.

  The delivery gate entrance to Grand Forks Air Force Base was a grisly scene, the worst the convoy had seen since ZomPoc had started. The road off of the highway was choked full of cars, and all of them had had been burned to a crisp. They could see burned bodies hanging out of car windows. By what used to be the guard shack were a few HMMWVs with .50-cals on top. They were also charred black. Bill could see a 10K forklift with a large concrete T barrier still on the forks. It appeared they’d been in the process of defending the base and putting up barriers when all hell had broken loose.

  They pulled into the campground at nine o’clock that night. They stopped at the ranger station and picked up a map of the campground. Then they decided to park at the second turnoff on Wood Street. It would offer them easy access to the dump station in the morning, and it was large enough for everyone to fit.

  “Hey, guys, there are some orange barrels blocking the road up here. You want me to push through? I think it would be a good idea to move them and put them back,” Dennis said.

  “That’s a brilliant idea. That way, it looks like no one is here, and if they get moved, we will know if someone came in after us,” Bill replied.

  On his way to the front, Q grabbed Cootch to help. Cootch didn’t know what was going on since he didn’t have a helmet yet.

  “The camping season ended at the beginning of the month. The park rangers placed them there to ensure no one wandered up this way without permission,” Cootch said after he was up to speed on the situation.

  After everyone was parked for the night, a few people went back down and rolled the barrels back into place. Cootch went and found his mom, and they had a tearful reunion and talked about everything that had happened in the last two weeks. Bill, Charity, and Mike walked up to the other end of the campground to check each loop to make extra sure someone else hadn’t done the same thing they had.

  Papaw had started up a small fire in one of the campfire rings, and the kids were roasting marshmallows by the time Bill and the others made it back to camp. They joined everyone by the fire. Cootch was catching the group up on how he and his family had gotten so trapped in the house.

  “As you saw, the garage was in the alleyway, and since the back yard was full of thrillers, there was no way to get to it. The car alarm to the car that was hit kept going off for three days. The alarm to the house that was across the alleyway also went off for seven days before the power went out. Our house was six blocks away from major shopping and a sports complex. That was one of the reasons we liked it. It was easy to get to everything and only twenty minutes to the base. After it finally got quiet, I’m not sure why the thrillers didn’t disperse. I guess being such a large group, they made enough noise to attract themselves to themselves.”

  “It was probably what saved you from mouth breathers and opportunists. It was like a security blanket. I’m just glad you guys made it,” said D.

  “Thanks again for everything, you guys.”

  “Come on, man, the three musketeers are back together. Now we are unstoppable. Which brings us to another problem,” Q added.

  Q filled Cootch in on the Campbellsville people and told him that they hadn’t seen the last of them. After he was done sharing, Cootch agreed they needed to be vigilant.

  By midnight, the watch rotations had been set and everyone else was fast asleep. Bill and Charity had the last watch and were up by five on ZP12 to take over. The convoy stayed at the campground all day. They all took turns emptying black and grey water tanks and refilling them with fresh water. They also took the time to do some much-needed laundry for everyone. The clothes were washed by hand in the sinks and hung around the campground to dry. Bill wasn’t sure how there was still water pressure; he figured there must have been a water tower nearby.

  Everyone enjoyed the relaxation and needed the downtime. They also took the time to install solar setups on three of the campers with the stuff they’d acquired in Indiana. That night at dinner, which was prepared by Memaw with the help of Doris, Bill told everyone what he wanted to do next on the way to Washington.

  “I want to head into Colorado. There is an expedition RV manufacturer there, and I want to see if any of them are left. After that, we shoot back up to Billings, Montana, and catch Interstate 90.”

  “Why? What’s so special about these RVs?” asked Shane.

  “The biggest, most badass off-road RVs are made there. They run on diesel. They have solar, and are fully self-contained. In the future, diesel will last longer than gas. After that, we can convert them to run on used motor oil or cooking oil we can scavenge from restaurants. They are built to handle extreme cold, and it will be during that first winter. It’s not like North Dakota cold, but it will snow. The last thing we need to deal with is busting a tank that is not properly insulated and heated. I think for the longevity of everyone’s health and sanity, it would be beneficial to take a couple of days to at least go find out.”

  “My family a
ll live in the Denver area. Maybe we could go check on them?” Tess asked.

  “Honey, I don’t think they made it. You know that they weren’t the campy types,” Cootch said.

  “I know. But I would never forgive myself if we didn’t at least look.”

  “I agree, Cootch,” said Bill, “and it won’t hurt anything to at least stop by and check. Phillip here made it.”

  “Thanks, dick.”

  “There you go with repeating the same insults again. I thought you were a big-shot lawyer with a silver tongue.”

  “HAHAHAHA, you got me there,” Phillip said with a smile.

  “Since Denver is so big,” Bill continued, “we will take a small recon team instead of putting the whole group at risk.”

  “Ok, so its settled, then. We make for Colorado in the morning.”

  Chapter 9. Move to Billings.

  Six o’clock on the morning of ZP11, Charles and Vinny were in the flight deck of the 130, going over the pre-flight checklist. The previous day at the guard base, Charles had given Vinny a crash course on how the fuel panel worked. Since there wasn’t an engineer, Charles wracked his brain and read everything he could to remember how all the switches were supposed to go. He wanted Vinny to focus on fuel management so he could worry more about just flying. After a quick walk-around to make sure nothing was leaking and after pulling the nose gear pin, Charles felt confident the plane was ready to go. The only thing he was really unsure about was the cargo. He didn’t have a loadmaster to make sure the center of gravity was in the right spot. Even as a commercial pilot for a large parcel carrier, the ground crews had done all the loading and balancing.

  “You guys know the plan?” GM asked Vinny.

  “Yup, were going to secure the airport, offload, and then come back for you and the rest of the stuff.”

  “Good, and for Christ’s sake, try not to get too many of my guys killed this time. I’ve had about enough out of you two, but right now, I need you. I’m warning you right now. You lose too many, and I will fucking torture you. I will make sure you have a long and painful death when I find you.”

  “All righty. Duly noted.”

  Vinny walked up the crew steps and pulled the door shut behind him. He didn’t like how manual everything was on this plane. He wondered how the greatest air force in the world could have such archaic equipment. Once the door was locked, he looked into the back. He could see boxes of food and ammo piled high, and all the red seats down both sides were filled with GM’s minions. He climbed into the flight deck and sat down in the co-pilot’s seat. Charles reached up and started the auxiliary power unit. Once that was online, he began the engine starting sequence. Vinny sat there, fidgety as he read the checklist out loud, feeling like it was taking a long time to get the plane started. Charles flipped switches to check on hydraulic pressures and generator voltages. Before too long, they were taxiing out.

  Five hours later, they were lining up for final approach into Billings, Montana, at Runway 10R. Vinny and Charles noticed that two planes had crashed and burned to nothing at the far end of the long runway. They could see luggage and bodies scattered everywhere. Clothing from burst-open bags blew around lazily on the breeze. Charles taxied the plane around to a large stand-alone building that looked like a maintenance hangar for small jets. After the props stopped turning, Vinny went down and opened the crew door so everyone could get out. Immediately, a team of eight guys posted themselves around the plane, ready for any deadheads or curious people who happened to come along. Before they’d left, Charles had shown one of the guys in the back how to operate the manual hand pump to get the ramp and door open. That way, they didn’t have to have the auxiliary power unit, or an external power unit, running any longer than they needed. The sooner they got quiet, the less deadheads they would attract.

  Within thirty minutes, three trucks pulled up full of people. Vinny walked over to greet them.

  “Are you guys with the Army? Is the government here to help?” asked the driver in the first truck.

  “Naw, just some regular guys. My name’s Vinny. We’re kinda like an army outfit, and we are here to help.”

  “Name’s Bob. We’ve been going around trying to thin out the Z’s, but according to the news before it went off the air, there are probably a hundred thousand of them in this city alone. We’re just about out of ammunition. We have a group of survivors we rescued. Most of them are willing to help.”

  “Sounds like you could use us, then. We have a small group of people but a lot of guns and ammo. What do you say we step inside my office here and talk about a plan?”

  “Yea, sure.”

  Vinny and Bob walked away, and Bob motioned for few of his guys to go with. They walked into an office in the hangar that Vinny had already claimed as his new temporary home. He had a map of the city laid out on the desk and had been studying it when the trucks had pulled up.

  “There’s a neighborhood just northwest of here. We cleaned it out after a few days when we realized the was no help coming. That’s where most of us live now. There’s another group holed up at the high school in the gym. We go and check on them once a day and clear out the Z’s that have gathered around them. But they don’t want to move. They still think help is coming.”

  “Well, help is here,” Vinny said with his best Hollywood smile.

  “Glad to hear it. Seems like we take a step forward and end up a few steps back. I’ve lost some really good people and a few close friends fighting them damn things.”

  “How have you been doing it?”

  “Just driving around and shooting them. Or killing them with machetes we got from the sporting goods store. That gets pretty tiring after a little while.”

  “I have an idea. Y’all get some pretty good snow up here, right?”

  “Well, damn, I didn’t even think about that. You think we should use a snow plow and run over them all. That would save so much time.”

  “Yup. I don’t know how to work one, but I can drive anything. I also saw a couple of front-end loaders. Those are great for moving stalled-out cars that are blocking your way.”

  “Man, that’s smart. I think we’re going to get along just fine. Danny over here thought maybe you guys wanted to take over or something like that. We haven’t seen a plane since the day they all crashed.”

  “Nah, we need people to help us, so we want to help you first.”

  “What do you need help with? Seems like you guys have a pretty good operation going.”

  “We want to build a safe zone. Somewhere that is secluded but will allow us to grow crops and hopefully build a respectable society.”

  “Well, that does sound nice. So, where do we start?”

  “First thing we need is to get that plane unloaded. Then all them guys will stay behind and help. My pilot and I will go get another load of supplies and more people. I’ll tell those guys to start with cleaning out the deadheads and collecting more supplies from around town. Do you know if there is an Army base? Or somewhere that we can get long-term storage food?”

  “Yes, there is the Army Reserve Center in town. They might have MREs. And this is one of the biggest cities in Montana. We have several grocery stores. We hit up one, but with so many Z’s, it was hard to stay there for very long. Oh, and a Costco on the south side of town, but we haven’t even been back down there since, like, day three. It’s a total mess.”

  “Why?”

  “There is a gang down there that thinks they own it now. We got into a firefight with them. That was the day we went to the sporting goods store. As long as we stay north of Central, or State on the other side of the tracks, we don’t see them.”

  “Interesting. I think we can make them compliant to our ways.”

  “Really? That would be great!”

  “What is it that they want?”

  “As far as I can tell, to be left alone. I think they are taking this opportunity to unleash all their darkest fantasies. There was a lady we found. She said they di
d some really bad things to her. She was pretty beat up. Both eyes were black, and her lips were bleeding. She killed herself shortly after we got her cleaned up and fed. I don’t even want to think about what happened to her.”

  “Well, then. Sounds like people we don’t want in our new community, doesn’t it?”

  “I know I don’t want them around. So, are you implying that you’re going to go down there and take them out or something?”

  “Yea, something like that. We’ll let the big boss decide when he gets here tonight. That brings me to another point. GM is, well, he is a force to be reckoned with. He is going to need a nice house. Like, the biggest, most luxurious house you guys can find in a safe area. Charles, my pilot, and I will be bringing him up here on the second trip later tonight.”

  “Oh, I thought you were the boss.”

  “Honestly, I’m second in command. But don’t let GM frighten you. He’s really just a big teddy bear.”

  “I’ll have to take your word for it.”

  “Let’s go see how things are going, Shall we?”

  Vinny and the new minions walked back out to the tarmac, and he was pleased to see the Billings people already helping unload the plane. It was going much faster than he’d expected, and they would be ready to go soon.

  “Dave, can you come over here for a second?”

  “Yea, Vinny, what’s up?”

  Dave was one of GM’s main leaders when Vinny was away on business. He’d also grown up with GM, Vinny, and Charles. But after high school, he’d stayed around town and worked various odd jobs here and there to make ends meet.

  “This is Bob. He is the leader of the Billings crew. I’m putting you in charge while Charles and I go back for GM. You guys are going to help them clear out the city as best as you can. You’re also going to find GM a new house. You know what he expects. Bob can fill you in on the details and the dynamics, of what’s happening around here later. I figure you guys have twelve hours to make it happen.”

  “Yes, sir. You know you can count on me.”