“Zach, I get the impression this is not good?”
“Yeah, you could say that.” I played with my food a minute before continuing. “This Captain, he’s got a severe ego, a lot of weapons, and they outnumber us. He’s going to take this as a personal affront. I don’t think it’s over, but I’m not sure what our alternatives are.” I ate a bite and noticed Andie looking at me.
“Andie, the Captain wants you back. It’s your choice. Do you want to go back?” I asked. She stared at me somberly and slowly shook her head. Julie grabbed her hand and squeezed, then looked at me and nodded. I nodded back.
I put my hand on top of theirs. “Then that’s good enough for Julie and me. This is your home now, Andrea.” I said. Rowdy added his hand to the group.
“That’s good enough for me too.” He said and smiled as he gently squeezed. Andie looked at him deeply. Already I could see the beginning of an attraction. Rowdy responded with a flirtatious smile of his own, and then looked over at me.
“I sure do like this democratic process we have here, but what now?” He asked.
“For now, we have to be on constant guard. We don’t do anything alone. All of us will be armed with a full load of ammo at all times. Andie knows every one of the Captain’s group. If we spot any of them, we consider them hostile. I can only hope he chooses to go his own way, but I highly doubt it.”
“Why’s that?” Rowdy asked.
“It’s his ego. He won’t be able to let it go. The logical part of his brain is telling him to move on, but this type of man is driven by his ego.” I said. Rowdy looked at Andie, who nodded in agreement.
I thought for a minute and looked at Rowdy. “If you stick with us, there may be trouble. I don’t blame you if you want to get in your bus and ride on. Maybe Andie will go with you.”
Andie shook her head. “I want to stay here.” She said.
Rowdy looked at her a long moment, maybe hoping she’d change her mind. Finally, he spoke.
“Guys, I’ll be honest. I can’t be alone anymore. The thought of it scares the dog shit out of me. I’d like to stick around too if you don’t mind.” He looked at the three of us expectantly.
“Welcome aboard then.” I said. I tried to put some warmth in my welcome, but quite frankly, I was too worried about what the Captain may do next.
After supper, Rowdy retrieved his guitar and a bottle from the bus. We sat in the den and listened to him play. He was actually quite good and had a pleasant tenor voice with a hint of a southern twang. We cheered and applauded after each song. Rowdy would smile with pride and take a sip from his bottle. I believe it was Patron tequila tonight. He offered Andie the bottle, who took a large swallow and nearly coughed it all back up. We laughed as tequila ran down her chin.
After a while, I felt Julie nodding off beside me. I was tired as well.
“Okay you two, we’re going to bed.” I said. “If y’all are going to stay up, please go to the barn or the bus. Be mindful of your noise.”
Rowdy looked over at Andie. “Well what do you say darlin’? You wanna head to the bus and I’ll sing you a few of the songs I wrote while I was in purgatory?” Andie readily agreed.
“You kids have fun.” I said lightheartedly. Andie smiled at us as they exited the door.
“Well, that didn’t take long.” Julie said. I gave her a kiss and we went arm in arm to the bedroom.
The next morning, Andie quietly entered the front door as I was getting breakfast prepared. She seemed surprised I was awake and looked at me sheepishly.
“Are you hungry?” I asked. She nodded. “Get the table set and I’ll see about getting something ready.” Julie came in a minute later, ordered me to sit down, and took over.
“We didn’t fuck.” Andie said suddenly. Julie and I looked at her and exchanged a glance.
“Andie, it’s none of our business.” Julie said.
“No, it is, I think.” She blew some hair out of her face. “He passed out after the second kiss, and then he snored and farted all night.”
Julie burst out in laughter. I had to admit it was funny. We were still chuckling when there was a knock on the door. Rowdy came in and headed straight to the bathroom. A few minutes went by before he made his way to the kitchen.
“Good morning all.” He said as he sat down. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and made a motion to straighten his beard. “God almighty you people get up early.”
I looked at Julie as she served breakfast. She eyed me, started grinning, and burst out laughing again. It had a snowball effect. Andie and I were soon laughing as well. Rowdy looked at us as if we’d gone crazy. When we finally settled down, we ate our breakfast contentedly.
“What’s on the agenda today, Zach?” Rowdy asked.
“Morning chores, and then I think you and I are going to do some scavenging.”
“We want to go too!” Julie chimed in. “You said we all need to stick together, remember?” I saw the stubbornness in her stare. I knew the look well, so I did what a real man would do, I held my hands up in surrender. I had many other things planned for her and Andie, but I knew it’d be a losing argument trying to convince them to stay. We were on the road two hours later, riding in Rick’s dually, loaded with our usual equipment and several gas cans in the bed.
“What’s with the gas cans, Zach?” Rowdy asked. “I thought you had plenty of fuel.”
I glanced over at him and nodded as I drove. “We do, but you don’t. And the way you’re running the bus engine every night, you’ll be out within a day or two. So, you’re going to be scavenging for your own diesel. I’m not giving you anymore.”
Julie giggled.
“Oh, and I have a list of other things we could use.” I looked back at Julie and she handed a notepad to Rowdy. Rowdy scanned it over and looked at me.
“You seem to have a penchant for writing everything down.” He said. Andie leaned forward and nudged Rowdy. He handed the notepad to her. I watched her in the rearview mirror as she went through several other pages, seemingly absorbed in everything I had written.
“Where are we going?” She asked a moment later.
“Cool Springs area. The first stop is Home Depot. If you notice, I have some out of the ordinary things, like driveway sealer. I’m betting nobody bothered taking anything like that. But, if you see other things on the list, you know what to do, and remember the golden rule: If we can eat it, we take it.” I said. I thought for a moment and spoke again.
“You two haven’t practiced with us in the dynamics of clearing a building, so I want you two to standby outside until we give the all clear.” I said.
Rowdy cleared his throat. “Hoss, I don’t mean to be arrogant, but my daddy taught me how to shoot guns when I was just a snot-nosed kid.”
“I’ve no doubt Rowdy, and I’m betting Andie is a pretty good shot too. But, Julie and I have trained together. We use hand signals, signals with our flashlights, code words, entry procedures, and assigned sectors of fire. We’ve been doing this together so long we practically read each other’s minds.”
Rowdy nodded. “Well, I can certainly believe that. You two are peas in a pod.” Andie laughed.
“Okay Hoss, pretty little Andie here will help me watch out. I’m guessing you’ll give the word when it’s okay to come inside?” I nodded. “Okay, I’m good with that, but one day you two are going to have to teach us some of those signals.”
“Trust me; he’ll have us practicing together so much you’ll want to shoot him yourself.” Julie said. I looked at her in the mirror with mock sadness. She stuck her tongue out and licked her lips provocatively. I concentrated on the road so I wouldn’t become aroused.
The windows of the Home Depot had all been broken out, which seemed unnecessary for whoever felt the need to do it, but it worked out well for us. I drove by the front and revved the engine several times. We were rewarded with two of them slowly trudging their way out.
Andie bounced in the back seat. “I want to kill one!” She sai
d. I looked at Rowdy.
“There’s one for each of you.” I said. They got out of the truck and the two of them took up positions on each end of the truck. I watched as Rowdy took aim and scored a headshot within a second. Andie followed a second later. I glanced at Julie.
“Not bad.” She said. I agreed.
“Good shooting.” I said to them when we got out. “Something you two may or may not have seen, even when you score a headshot, they don’t always instantly drop dead. Sometimes it takes a few seconds, so be careful. You might assume the threat is eliminated and just before they drop dead they’ll get one final bite in.” They nodded. I looked around and saw no other zombies.
“Alright, you two wait out here. Oh, and I need to emphasize to you two not to shoot into the store. If I get shot, whether it’s by accident or not, I’m shooting back. Stay by the truck and mind your sectors of fire. If any hostiles approach, either sound the horn, or start shooting.”
They grinned and nodded in understanding.
Julie and I did a fast, dynamic entry and cleared the path to the building materials section quickly and silently. There were no other zombies, only a few putrefied corpses. Most of the inventory was gone, the shelves empty. But, as I suspected, there was plenty of five gallon buckets of asphalt sealer, along with some swabs. I grabbed a flat cart and loaded up. Julie guarded me as I pushed it out. I stopped suddenly and saw another item we could use, termite poison. There were several five gallon cans. I loaded all of them. When I was done, the cart must have weighed over three hundred pounds. I was breathing heavily when I finally got it pushed outside. Rowdy saw me, got out, and helped me load it all in the truck.
“What’s the sealer for?” Andie asked.
“The driveways.” I smiled at her confusion. “We’ve got to keep up the maintenance of our property.” I explained. “Same thing for the termite poison.”
“There are some gas pumps over yonder.” Rowdy said, while pointing. “I reckon we should check.” I agreed. I was going to tell him the chances were slim, but he’d need to find out for himself. Andie joined him as he walked over to them.
“Andie needs clothes.” Julie observed as we watched her pull her pants up over her skinny butt. I chuckled.
“Next on the list I guess. There’s a sporting goods store down the road. We’ll give it a try and see if there are any hunting clothes left. I may be wrong, but I’m guessing she hasn’t worn a dress since kindergarten.” I said.
“I’m going to need some bigger pants as well, feel.” She put my hand on her baby bump. It had definitely grown in size. I rubbed it softly.
“Mmm, that feels good.” She cooed. I was interrupted by Rowdy waving at us. I sighed and stopped. “We’ll continue this later.” She said. I patted her on the butt in agreement as we got in the truck and drove to the end of the parking lot where the gas pumps were located.
“Hoss, how in the hell do you get this here gas cap off of the storage tank?” Rowdy asked.
“Yeah, Hoss, show him how it’s done.” Julie mocked. I gave her a look. She smiled sweetly at me.
“Okay you two, watch close. It’s actually fairly simple, but you’ve got to be careful with static electricity.” I pulled out the bolt cutters, grounded them, and then snapped the lock. The cap opened right up.
“Alright, that’s step one. Andie, there is a length of string in the truck with a couple of lead fishing weights tied on the end. Grab it and bring it over here.” She complied without complaint. I dropped the weighted end and it struck the bottom of the tank with a clang. I shook my head.
“Bone dry.” Andie said. I nodded in agreement.
“I was afraid of that. Most of these tanks were emptied long ago.” I held up the rope. “This is a simple way to check. The only disadvantage is if you find a tank with fuel, the rope gets wet, so you can’t tell how much is in the next tank you check until you let the rope dry out.” They nodded in understanding.
“You’ve seemed to have thought of everything Zach.” Rowdy said. “I’m glad I found you guys.” He smiled, but I honestly thought he was about to tear up. “It was a long winter.” He added quietly. Andie grabbed his hand and squeezed it.
“Alright, load up, we have other places to check and I’m going to show you two how to siphon gas out of motor vehicles.”
The sun was on the horizon as we headed home. It had been a successful day. We found enough diesel fuel to fill most of the cans and new clothes for Andie. There was even a case of trail mix hidden under a pile of clothes on a shelf in the sporting goods store.
Our good feelings ended as we got closer to home. The first thing I saw was an inordinate amount of smoke in the sky. There was a pit in my stomach and it was growing quickly.
And then we saw it. Julie gasped.
“Oh, my God.” She said. It was Fred’s home, and it was totally engulfed in flames.
Chapter 35 – Fred
They secured the plane and spent the night inside it. Even though the doors were secured, Sarah insisted having a guard on duty. Each of them took two hour shifts. Fred was the second to the last shift and Sarah was going to take the four to six. Fred opted to let her catch up on her sleep. He knew he wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep anyway.
He quietly watched the three of them sleep. Sarah was sleeping fitfully, her arms and legs twitching occasionally. The two love birds, he finally learned her name was Sabrina Smith and she was an Airman First Class, had laid out some sleeping bags on the floor and were now snuggled up together, blissfully asleep.
Fred’s thoughts went back to the apartment. He had knocked softly on the door and heard the telltale noises a moment later. He knew there was an infected individual inside his daughter’s apartment, but he had to see for himself. When he kicked the door open, the zombie caught the impact of the door and flew backwards into the room. Fred watched as his daughter, or rather, what was once his daughter, climb back to her feet. She then launched herself at him. Fred had instinctively drawn his revolver and fired. Another one emerged from a back bedroom a second later, another female. It was probably Betsy’s roommate. Fred put her out of commission as well.
Fred seemed to have zoned out afterward. He didn’t remember setting fire to the apartment, nor did he seem to remember his ensuing actions. His next conscious thought was Sarah yelling at him. If not for her, he would probably be still standing out there, waiting for the zombies to attack him. He heard some movement outside and snuck a peek out of a window.
“What is it, Fred?” Sarah whispered, startling him. He turned to see she had awakened and sat up. He stepped softly as he walked over to her.
“There are three or four of them wandering around out there.” He said. Sarah looked at her watch and frowned at him.
“You were supposed to wake me two hours ago.”
“I wasn’t tired, and you needed your sleep. There may be others out there. Are we going to need access to the outside of the plane, or can we start up and fly off?” Fred asked. She shook her head.
“I wish it were that simple. We’ll need to go outside. There are pre-flight checks and procedures which are required.” She pointed at the other two. “I didn’t know they had a thing for each other.” Fred shrugged and looked out the window.
“They’re moving like molasses. Since I know nothing about flying, why don’t I take care of them while you three get the plane ready?”
“What do you have in mind?” Sarah asked.
“I’m going to draw them away from the plane. They’re so slow, I think I can merely walk in a big circle until I hear the engines turn over, and then I’ll run back.”
“Why don’t we just shoot them all?” Sergeant Fandis asked. He had awakened while we were talking and was listening to our conversation.
“We want to avoid making noise as long as possible. Rule number two, they’re attracted to noise.”
“What are these rules you keep referring to?” Sarah asked.
“A very smart young man I know
wrote up a list of rules. They’ve come in handy.” Fred said. “I’ll write them down for you, if you like.” He looked at the three of them. “Well, let’s get this dance started.”
They lowered the ramp and Fred took off at a jog. Sarah watched him as he ran with those ridiculous cowboy boots and made a mental note to get him squared away with some combat boots when they got back to Tinker. Fred jogged twenty feet away from the plane, and then stopped. He stomped his foot a couple of times, and when he had the zombies attention, he started fast walking out toward the opposite end of the tarmac. The zombies hungrily followed.
“Alright you two, we’ve got work to do. Did you find a fuel truck anywhere around here Sergeant?” Sarah asked.
“We did ma’am, but the battery is dead on it.” Sergeant Fandis replied.
Sarah sighed. “Alright, get the start cart hooked up and start preflight checks. Smith, you and I are going to take the Humvee over to that tanker and see if we can jump it off. I don’t need to remind you two to keep an eye out for those things.”
“Shouldn’t someone keep an eye on Fred, ma’am?” Sergeant Fandis asked.
“If you hear him shooting, that means he needs help. Let’s get moving.”
Fred stomped on the asphalt occasionally to keep their attention, and the zombies eagerly followed. They were at irregular intervals, and he noticed one of them was several feet ahead of the others. He was very tall, well over six feet, and wearing a dirty Air Force uniform. Fred increased his stride, saw a shovel lying in the weeds beside the tarmac and headed toward it. He picked it up as he kept walking and tested the handle. It was still sturdy.
“Yep, I think you’ll do nicely.” Fred quietly said to the shovel as he walked toward a crashed plane. He stepped around some of the wreckage, gave himself a little room, and waited. The tall soldier/zombie came near and stepped around the wreckage. Fred rightly assumed having to turn a corner was difficult for them. He reminded himself to tell Zach what he had discovered.
The zombie’s rasping noises increased and he struggled to align himself to where Fred was standing. Fred buried the shovel in the zombie’s skull, wriggled it free, and waited for the next one. When he had dispatched all of them, he made a wide circle back to the plane. He discovered no other zombies. The three soldiers were waiting for him.
Z14 (Zombie Rules) Page 21
