by Poe, S. B.
“What the hell?” Raj said, looking in his rearview mirror.
Bridger stood and walked down the aisle to the back of the bus. He looked out the window and saw two cars following them. He grabbed the walkie.
“JW, we have picked up a convoy. Two vehicles, unknown occupants.”
“Ok, I am going to stop. If they stop behind you, wait for me to walk back.”
“Aye aye cap’n” Bridger said.
As they slowed to a stop and pulled to the side of the road the vehicles stopped too. Bridger watched them. Nobody got out. JW walked to the last bus and Bridger came out. They walked to the first car. JW approached the driver’s window. It was down. A woman and two kids.
“Why are you following us?” he asked.
“We were at the school. We hid in our cars and didn’t move. We haven’t seen anyone come by in hours. You were the first ones we saw, we couldn’t stay there any longer.”
“The people behind you?” he asked.
“Neighbors. I’m Janice Walker. My son, Jeremiah and my nephew Clyde. Behind us are the Harrison’s. An older couple who lived next door.” She said.
“We are going to the woods. We have some provisions and we have weapons. If you would like to follow us, you are more than welcome. But, if you do, you follow our rules.”
“OK. What are your rules?” she asked.
“Simple. Stay alive so you can keep others alive.” He said.
She nodded her head. He walked to the other vehicle and had the same conversation. They would follow. He told them to get behind Kate’s bus and let Bridger follow. They were growing their caravan.
Ahead JW could see the turn. They had seen a few vehicles abandoned on the way here, but not many. The road was fairly clear once they had crossed the bridge. A few houses and a few stores. They had seen no people. Living or dead. That was good. JW turned down the dirt road. Once he got everyone through the gate, he locked it. They made camp. JW got his truck started and they built a small fire. Tilly and Evelyn had taken upon themselves to coordinate sleeping arrangements. No one wanted to sleep. The darkness of the night was accentuated by the ghostly whispers of smoke lit by the moon. Charlie had brought a weather radio and was cranking it.
“Forecast for the weekend. Zombies. More at five.” Tilly said, watching him crank.
He turned on the power. Static. He moved the dial. Static. He switched bands. Static. He switched to AM and all the way to the left of the dial, he got a signal.
PLEASE STAND BY FOR A MESSAGE FROM THE VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
PLEASE STAND BY FOR A MESSAGE FROM THE VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
The message repeated several times. Charlie was just about to turn the dial and try another station.
“This is Vice President Addison. Tonight we mourn the loss of so many, including President Wilson. I come to you tonight as a father and a friend. Washington has fallen. All information we have is that the city has been completely over run with Marionette. We have lost contact with all overseas military commands. We are at a secure location in Colorado and although we have contained it for now, it is inside the compound. People listening to my voice; please hold those you love tight tonight when you say your prayers. Stay strong. Be safe. God bless.
The group around the campfire looked at each other. All were searching the faces of strangers to find hope.
“We made it here. We are still here.” Raj said.
Everyone slowly went to their bus. Nobody was sleeping. Everyone was sitting in a seat. Looking out the window into the darkness. Kate, Scott and Josh were sitting at the front of one bus. With them were people who joined the caravan past the bridge, and Evelyn Collins. The other bus held Tilly, Raj and Charlie’s group, Jennifer, Lori, Amanda and Chris. Both buses passed the night watching the moon dance off the wet left by the rain and the smoke drifting through the trees.
“You were at the school?” Kate asked Janice.
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“It…it was bad. We were…just…”
“It’s ok, we can talk tomorrow. Just rest.” Kate said.
When the sun finally rose JW and Bridger walked down the road towards the gate. They cut through the woods. The came to the end of the stand of trees they were in and it opened into a field. They could see the road from this spot. Even though JW knew it wasn’t on his land, he didn’t think things like that were going to matter as much any more. The started across the field just to see what they could see.
“It looks like your plan might work.” Bridger said.
“For now. But for how long, this thing has spread so fast. There wasn’t even enough time to think. All we did was react ”
“Lucky we had a chance to.” Bridger said.
“From everything we’ve have seen we were very lucky. But yeah, for right now, we are ok.”
“We might have another problem.”
“What’s that?” JW asked
“We have maybe three weeks of food. Tops.” He said
“You remember laughing me off the phone about zombies in Madagascar?”
“Yeah.” Bridger smiled and looked down.
“That was four days ago. Four days. Three weeks seems like a long time.” He said, looking at the sunrise.
“Besides, we’ve got the rest of our lives to figure it out.”
The next book in the Marionette series
“Walk with me”
by
S.B. Poe
Coming June 1, 2018
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
S.B. Poe is a fan of books and zombies. Hence a book about zombies.
