Zombies! (Book 6): Hold The Line

by Merritt, R. S.

  “We’ve packed up and processed a ton of refugees in the last few weeks. Heard a lot of stories like yours unfortunately.” Bryan paused. “You know. When I signed up to be part of the roving patrols, I figured I’d be fighting Zombies and the occasional bandits. It never really occurred to me that people would take advantage of all this chaos to try and take over everything. I guess I should’ve seen it coming but I was still thinking we were all Americans. I guess America like we knew it’s dead now.”

  “The people who attacked Henry’s village. The people trying to take over the world. They call themselves the New America. They try to push it like they’re doing good in the world. We rescued our kids from them, and we’ve been running ever since. Fought our way all the way up from Florida to here. There’s no America anymore. There’s only what you’re able to claim and hold by force.” Kelly said. The soldiers in the car all nodded. That pretty much summed it up.

  The headlights of the diesel chugging monstrosity they were riding in reflected off of a mile marker that was the drivers cue to exit stage left. They drove off the main road onto an overgrown service road that meandered through the woods. It may have been a road at one point but now it was just an opening in between the trees. The hummer bounced down the path with the truck following closely behind. A few minutes later they pulled into the parking lot of a large barn shaped house monstrosity someone with horrible taste had obviously sunk a ton of money into. Kelly didn’t get the concept of buying a working barn and turning it into a non-functional home. Whatever, it hadn’t been her money.

  Thinking about money she recalled how focused she and Randy had been on building up a nest egg. How they’d scrimped and saved to shove the maximum amounts in their 401Ks and the kids college funds. What a freaking waste of time and effort all that’d been. It turned out retirement was a lot cheaper than they’d thought it’d be. Which was good since it was highly doubtful that they’d have access to their 401K funds if they managed to miraculously survive to be seventy years old.

  Two men appeared on the porch and casually walked over. Bryan introduced the two of them to Kelly and Henry. Once introductions had been made, he had the men go bring out a couple of stretchers to off load Randy and Kyler. The motley group paraded into the eclectic barn-house. Inside there was a huge open area with some massive couches spread around it. The kids and most of the men settled into the couches. Kelly followed the stretcher bearers and Bryan back to a small room with two beds in it.

  Kyler was placed on one bed and Randy on the other. One of the men who’d been on the porch when they arrived left and came back with a bag full of medical supplies. He took out a stethoscope and asked someone to help him get Kyler’s shirt off.

  “Are you a doctor?” Kelly asked.

  “No. I’m a corpsman which is kind of like an EMT in the military. I’m definitely not a doctor. Although I’ve been forced to pretend like I’m one way too many times over the last couple of years. Trying to patch people together with band aids and dental floss sucks.”

  One of the other men helped him get Kyler’s shirt off. The corpsman listened to his breathing and checked out his heartbeat. He also noted the full-on Brotherhood brand on Kyler’s back.

  “Did you know about that?” Bryan asked pointing out the brand and explaining what it meant.

  “We knew about the brand. He’ll be able to explain it once he wakes up. I don’t know all the details but he’s definitely not a loyal Brotherhood soldier.” Kelly said. She honestly hadn’t even considered the fact that the brand on Kyler’s back was going to make him a marked man up in the north.

  “What the hell!” The corpsman said standing up quickly and moving away from Kyler. He’d started doing a full physical on him and found the leg with the massive pig bite wound on it. It looked a hell of a lot like a Zombie bite. Right down to the red lines of infection all around it.

  “It’s a pig bite!” Kelly hurried to explain. “He got attacked by a wild boar when we were walking through the swamp.” The corpsman eyed her suspiciously then took a closer look and confirmed it looked like it came from an animal versus a Zombie. Considering how healed the wound was if Kyler had been going to turn from being bitten then he would’ve turned already anyway.

  “Any other body marks on this guy we should know about? Does he have ‘666’ tattooed on his forehead or anything?” Bryan asked.

  “ It’s like he wants to do stuff to his body to make us want to shoot him. This kid’s been kicked around like crazy. You have to look pretty hard to find parts of his body without battle scars.” The corpsman said in awe.

  “He’s been through a lot. How’s he doing medically?” Kelly asked.

  “His vitals area all good. He’s running a low fever but nothing major. Good pupil response and all that. I think he’ll wake up pretty soon. He needs a week of pajamas, hot chocolate and sleeping in late.” The corpsman said grabbing all his gear and moving over to Randy’s bed.

  An hour later Randy was sitting next to Kelly out on a couch in the living area. Surrounded by their kids they were whispering back and forth on what their next steps should be. They’d pretty much decided they wouldn’t be able to do anything until Kyler woke up and they knew he was ok. No one had any idea when that might happen. Randy had woken up during the physical the corpsman had been giving him. He’d freaked out when he opened his eyes to find two strange men trying to take his pants off. Kelly was still occasionally giggling remembering him punching the surprised corpsman right in the nose then trying to escape from the room with his pants falling down around his ankles.

  The kids were all in a vegetative state. The sun was coming up outside which in this new normal typically meant it was bedtime. The guards had already gone around the first floor of the home securing the curtains and making sure nothing would give away that a group of uninfected humans were in the home. Unbeknownst to Kelly and crew the vehicles had been moved into a large shed on the far side of the property. That way any troops from the south or bandits in general wouldn’t see them and get any ideas.

  Bryan came over and told them they had some rooms ready for them if they’d like to go ahead and turn in for the day. They’d already been given some food and water. No one had bothered taking their weapons or packs away from them. The kids had enjoyed some hot chocolate as well. The instant kind with the tiny dehydrated marshmallows floating on the top. Once they made it to their room they climbed into the beds and fell asleep pretty quickly. All except Caitlyn who was worried no one was watching Kyler. She got up to go check on him and an armed guard sitting at the end of the hallway asked her to go back in her room. Not knowing what else to do Caitlyn had gone back in their room and sat in a chair facing the door.

  She was furious at them for not letting her go check on Kyler. He’d looked like hell the last time she’d seen him in the back of the truck. Her mom had told them that the men here knew he had a Brotherhood brand on his back. They’d acted like they accepted the reason Kelly had given them but that’d been while Kyler was unconscious. They’d see how well he was treated once he woke up. Determined to wait up until she heard something more about Kyler Caitlyn managed to keep her eyes open in the easy chair for another hour before she too succumbed to exhaustion and fell fast asleep.

  Chapter 26: The Refugee Railroad

  Caitlyn’s eyes snapped open when the knob on the door turned. Kyler was walked in with his hands cuffed in front of him. He was shoeless and sporting a fresh black eye. Bryan and two of his men walked him roughly into the room. One of the guards was nursing a bloody nose.

  “You guys suck at waking up.” Bryan said. “Put your damned guns down. If Kyler here is who he says he is and knows who he says he knows then he’ll be golden. Otherwise he’ll be less than golden but let’s go with he’s telling the truth for now. I want to believe you all since I risked mine and my men’s lives running out on that bridge to save you. Seriously, I can tell you have your gun pointed at me under the blanket. Unless you’re jus
t happy to see me.” Bryan said staring hard at Randy.

  “You can put the gun down. They’re just doing what they should be doing when someone sneaks across the border with refugees and has a Brotherhood brand on their back. It’ll all get straightened out soon. Assuming Presly and Hartfield are still alive. If they’re dead, we may be screwed. Or, at least I may be screwed although they probably have records.” Kyler said.

  “We’re going to leave when it gets dark. We’ll take you all to a place we call the refugee railroad. You’ll get processed there and given your options. We’ll hopefully be able to get in touch with command and verify Kyler’s story too. We’re going to have to put him in a different room from you guys for the rest of the day. I just wanted you to see him, so you’d know he was ok. Are we all good?” Bryan asked.

  “Doing better than your hair is.” Caitlyn said. She wasn’t really happy to see Kyler in restraints again. They’d all spent way too much time in handcuffs and tie wraps. She knew how much those things started to hurt after you wore them for a while.

  “Very funny. I’ll tell you the whole hair story when we’re all friends again. Just remind me to tell you about the Zombie I stopped from killing a bunch of kittens. Stupid thing had super glue on his fingers and caught my hat on fire.” Bryan said. With those extremely odd yet intriguing words he walked out of the room followed by his men and Kyler. Neither Caitlyn nor anyone else in the room could think of a single thing to say after that last bizarre statement. Which was exactly why he’d probably said it.

  “Sucks to be Kyler right now.” Randy finally said.

  “Do you think he was trying to rescue kittens when his hat caught on fire?” Myriah said. She was obviously trying to puzzle out the riddle Bryan had left them with. “That would explain the haircut kind of…” She drifted off when she saw the way everyone was looking at her.

  “He’ll be fine. He’s connected here. They just have to call the guys he knows. He’ll be free again in no time.” Kelly said reassuringly. They’d been in way tougher situations than this. If Bryan really thought that they were a bunch of spies, then they wouldn’t be sitting here fully armed right now. As far as she knew Henry and Sarah still had all their weapons on them as well. They’d been given rooms on the second floor of the remodeled barn while the rest of them were down on the first floor.

  Peeking out the window revealed the sun was still out. Randy could see a copse of pine trees and the trail they’d driven in on. He thankfully didn’t see any Zombies wandering around. They still had a few hours to kill in the room before they were due to leave. No one was really sleepy with everything going on. Especially since they’d all just had a decent amount of sleep by apocalypse standards. Kelly whipped out an Old Maid deck and sat down in the middle of the stained hardwood floor. The kids all gathered around and began happily playing the game.

  Randy sat on the bed watching. He was still in a good bit of pain from his recent wounds. On top of the shoulder that’d taken the brunt of the birdshot from a very closely fired shotgun he now also had something going on with his head from the explosion on the bridge. Considering he’d been knocked unconscious his assumption was he had a concussion. That would explain why he felt so nauseous and out of it. Despite the pounding headache and constant desire to puke he sat up and watched his family playing the old card game.

  Watching them play he could almost believe they were just sitting in a cabin on vacation up in Pigeon Forge. They’d been going there almost every year since they’d discovered the super popular spot up in the Rocky Mountains. They’d rent a cabin for a week and go to Dollywood and do all the tourist stuff. Randy had always liked going for hikes on the trails in the mountains. Some of his best memories were of all of them sitting on the floor playing Candy Land or Old Maid or matching my little pony cards. Seeing them doing something so normal on the floor right now was buoying him up.

  Kelly joined him up on the bed after a few hands. She’d passed control of the game over to Caitlyn and Myriah. The hardest part about playing was keeping the little kids from screaming in excitement when they got the Old Maid. It was cute watching Zoey telling Doreen not to scream when she handed her a card. Doreen had no clue what was going on except that the one card was the one that made everybody get excited. Every time she pulled a card out, she’d ask everybody if it was the good card or not.

  “How’s your head?” Kelly asked snuggling up next to him with her eyes digging into Randy’s.

  “It’s been better honestly. You have any Tylenol on you?” Randy asked. She more than likely did. She was a walking pharmacy. The only issue being sometimes everything wasn’t as organized and labeled as she’d like it. She couldn’t walk around with pill bottles rattling all over the place, so she was forced to consolidate and wrap everything in cloth and Ziplocs. She must’ve been anticipating the request though as she almost immediately handed him a handful of pills to dry swallow.

  “What do you think a refugee railroad is?” Kelly asked.

  “A train to trouble? A waystation of worry?” Randy looked at Kelly who hadn’t even bothered to smirk at his attempt at levity. “Nothing? Really?”

  “Seriously. They’re driving us to some processing center tomorrow. Doesn’t that sound very concentration camp like? Did we go through all that pain and suffering getting out of New American territory just to be caught up in the same old crap up here?” Kelly asked. She had a valid point.

  “I don’t see where we have much of a choice. We could break out, I guess. I don’t know if they’d come after us since we’re armed. We don’t have very many bullets left but they don’t know that. It’s not like there’s bars on the window. I don’t think they’d try too hard to stop us. We’d have to leave Kyler behind though and where’d we go? Listening to Kyler it sounds like they’re trying harder up here to go back to something like what we had before this all happened.”

  “He also made it sound like if we got here in time that they’d load us up on an aircraft carrier for an all-expense paid Caribbean cruise. I’ve heard about an imaginary railroad so far but nothing about this arc that we’re supposed to be able to march up on and be saved.”

  “You got me.” Randy said. “The only thing I can think of to do is hope Kyler was telling the truth about everything. As long as he was, we should be good to go. If he wasn’t, we still have our guns.”

  “With like a total of twenty shots between all of us.” Kelly whispered back. They’d consolidated their ammunition and split it up equally once they’d gotten back here. Randy had gone through almost all of his covering their flank back on the bridge. Kyler was probably out too. He didn’t have his guns anyway so that didn’t really matter.

  “There’s only around eight of them. We’d have twelve bullets left over.” Randy said with a straight face hoping to at least get a courtesy laugh. Nothing.

  There really wasn’t much more to talk about. They weren’t going to leave Kyler tied up here while they escaped through the woods on their own. They barely had enough ammunition to defend themselves out in the open anyway. It looked like they’d be finding out soon enough what a refugee railroad was.

  The kids card game ended when they started arguing and throwing the cards around. It didn’t irritate any of them like it would’ve back pre-apocalypse when the kids were misbehaving. Instead it made them all a little nostalgic for the good old days when the kids being kids didn’t risk them all being eaten alive. A soldier showed up not too long after the cards had been put away and invited them to follow him back to the main area for breakfast.

  They sat down at one of the tables in the main room. They were passing around a large plate with a huge stack of pancakes on it when Sarah and Henry joined them. Kelly felt like they’d known the two forever already. Henry asked how Kyler was doing. Randy told them that Kyler was still being looked after in another room. Kelly wondered what Randy’s plan was going to be for when Henry and Sarah saw Kyler being marched out with cuffs on. She shoved that thought into a
separate section of her brain reserved for all the challenges they’d face when they got to them. It was hard enough dealing with the problems in front of them right now.

  By the time they finished breakfast it was dark outside. Bryan swung by and let them know they’d be headed out in about thirty minutes. The whole patrol was leaving since the point of them being here had been to keep an eye on the last standing bridge in the area. Kelly asked if he could share a few more details about what a refugee railroad was.

  “Sorry if that sounded a little scary. When we pick up people looking for a place to settle, we normally take them to a regional headquarters. The people there keep track of how many people we have in all the different settlements. They can work with you to figure out where you’ll be settled.” Bryan looked at them to see if they had any more questions. Predictably enough Kelly had plenty.