walkers
the survivors
Volume 3 of The Walkers Series
Zelda Davis-Lindsey
This book is a work of fiction. All characters, names and events are a work of my imagination. Most of the places in the book are real and placed here from my travels as an over the road truck driver.
No portion of this book, whether in print or electronic format, may be duplicated or transmitted without written permission of the publisher, except where permitted by law.
All Rights reserved
© 2012 Zelda Davis-Lindsey
Published by Antelope Creek Publishers
Utica Montana
Cover Design by Zelda Davis-Lindsey
Dedicated to my husband Howard and son Michael for without their love and support this book would have remained only in my memory. I'd like to remember my Unka Bill for all the encouragement he sends my way. He makes me feel like I could conquer the world.
CHAPTER 1
Dirty and bedraggled, we moved slowly towards the destroyed lodge. Some of us were on four wheelers while the rest walked, dragging our feet, shoulders slumped. I thought we looked pretty pathetic because that's the way I felt. I didn't want to see what destruction had been wrought on my home. The idea that it wasn't there anymore just wouldn't form in my mind so I guess I had to see it to believe it. I walked beside Mason, the person who grounded me and loved me, knowing he would hold me up if it got too bad. He had in the past.
I could see the hill that hid the lodge when we came out of the trees. We had been fishing and berry picking with our friends from Valley East, another settlement in the valley to the east of us. It'd been a day of celebration. We'd all survived kidnappings, besiegements, a nuclear explosion and forest fires in the past few months and wanted to celebrate and prepare for the fast approaching winter. It had been a grand day full of laughter and love, picking berries, picnicking and lounging near the prettiest lake in the world. The sky was the palest of blues with the occasional fluffy cloud moving lazily across it. The fish, jumping out of the water to catch the bugs skimming across the lake, made loud splashes drawing the attention of the fishermen. Some deer had been sighted on the opposite side of the lake with twin fawns. They'd lost their spots but were just as cute.
I remember the smell of pine heavy in the air that mixed with the ribs smoking on the grill. The women had stained lips and fingers from picking berries and eating almost as many as we kept. The berries would make great syrup and jams. On a cold mid January day, pancakes with chokecherry syrup just made you smile, period.
We'd just finished eating when the first explosion rent the air. I actually felt the ground vibrate before I heard the noise. While we were still trying to figure it out another explosion followed closely behind the first. Then the debris began to fall. The movies didn't do it justice. It was like hell rose up to meet us. The fires rained down on us, chasing us into the caves we'd discovered several weeks prior. The director of camp activities at the lodge had made himself a neat little nest inside one and that's where we hid as our world burned down around us. Alan, the man who'd saved my bacon on the trip back from Arizona last month had chosen to hide out in the cabin, thinking it was a better spot. It wasn't and when it caught fire, he ran out, his clothes a blaze heading towards us. I can still still see the look of stark terror on his face. He collapsed several feet from the cave and continued to burn for quite a while. I'll hear his screams and smell the stench of burning flesh for the rest of my life.
Two of the four wheelers caught fire that were sitting too close to the cabin so when things died down several of the men took what was left to investigate, leaving Howard and Duke in the caves with the women, to wait. We waited till morning for the men to come back and when they did, they brought back the announcement we'd been dreading. The lodge was gone. I'd known ahead of time because a charred piece of coloring book page Mandy and colored for Howard last Christmas and had, until recently, hung in Howard's room, floated to the ground in front of the cave. I gave it to Howard who tearfully accepted it then quietly left me alone. We both knew, before the men returned, what they would find, but didn't want to voice it. Funny how you think if you don't say something terrible it won't be true. This time it did no good to keep it to ourselves...the lodge was gone.
It had been a dream of mine. I'd found it one summer when a friend talked me into visiting during college break. Id' fallen in love with the snow-capped mountains and the beautiful valley it sat in. Hand hewn logs made up the lodge with a deck that went all the way around it. We'd made it our home for over a year now and I think everyone felt the same way.
When the virus hit, turning normal everyday people into flesh eating zombies, I was visiting my sister, Lacy in Florida while our parents were vacationing in Italy. When they died when the plane crashed, I grabbed Lacy and headed to Montana, gathering friends about me as we fought our way north. I met Mason, in East Texas, at a pet store of all places and we'd been together since. He was lover, confidant and friend and he always had my back. He tightly held my hand, knowing what we would find around the next bend and dreading it like the rest of us.
We encountered what was left of Ken's plane, first. It was kept away from the house so he'd had a nice runway to take off. It wouldn't be going anywhere ever again. It lay on it's top, one wheel hanging loose, the prop completely gone and the rest of the plane nearly unrecognizable mostly because what was left of a truck was laying on top. We stood around staring at it like ninnies until as one unit we turned to look down the valley towards the lodge. I couldn't understand what I was looking at for a minute. The rock wall behind the lodge was a black, pile of rubble. No barn, or corrals or pig pen or mill or greenhouse. Nothing but charred sticks poking up at weird angles, like the bones of a long dead animal. We approached it slowly like it was a sleeping monster that might wake up and attack us. My mind was trying to make sense of it while I almost tip toed towards it.
Each step on the burnt earth caused a small puff of ash to fluff up. We were all black from the soot, reminding me of the time last month, was it just a month ago? when we fought a flash forest fire set by a rogue team of national guard hell bent on acquiring the property. Although, burning us out meant they were burning themselves out but, then I never said they were the brightest bulb in the package. Anyway, after the fire we had soot in every conceivable place it could go. Soot is oily, so trying to rinse it off made it worse. We learned to deal with it and used gallons of dish washing liquid to dissolve the oil.
Right now the only thing that was white were our eyes and walking through the soot and ash towards the remains of our home was making things worse. When we got close enough to take it all in, my legs gave out and I sat hard on the ground. A cloud of ash swirled around from my impact and I waited for it clear enough for me to see. I tried to make sense of what was before me. Bits of logs were sticking up from the ground at odd angles with a large depression in the middle. Pieces of stuff lay around it, furniture and what not, but couldn't make any particular shape out. Paper still floated to the ground but I don't know from where and the smell...well, you can't describe the smell.
Someone screamed scaring the crap out of me. I looked at Mercy and she just sobbed into Clint shoulders so I looked where he was looking and saw an arm with the hand still attached. Okay, that's not good. I closed my eyes and willed the panic attack, I knew was lurking around the corner, to go away. Taking deep breaths, I vowed not to look that direction again. Mason knelt behind me with his hands on my shoulders giving me the strength I needed. He helped me stand up, then hugged me tight for a few moments before I took another deep breath and walked towards what was left of our home.
/> The crater that was the lodge was huge. I saw the shed where we kept our gunpowder and reloading supplies was gone. The two cottages that were left from the forest fires were still burning mostly because they had been a distance from the lodge. They were adding to the soot and ash already in the air. The debris had filled the creek to the point where it was overflowing onto areas that housed the animals. Those bodies and body parts were just littered everywhere. It was almost as bad as the human body part...ok, not thinking about that.
I turned to look at everyone else simply because I couldn't look at the destruction anymore. The women had streaks on their faces where the tears were running down their soot covered faces. The men weren't doing much better. I turned into Mason's arms when Mandy said, "What's that?".
"Damn", Flynn said. "Sorry, but damn." Yeah, me too.
We looked where she pointed and saw what looked like a missile. Flynn cautiously approached it, walked around it and came back.
"Don't go near it. It's an unexploded mortar. Hear that girls?" he said to Mandy and Clarissa, "Don't go near it or it'll blow up." They held hard to their mama's hands and nodded their heads.
Once the quiet had been broken we seemed to buck a bit.
"What now?" asked Sarah. "We don't have a place to live, or food or anything. We're in worse shape now than when we arrived last year. What do we do now?" She expressed what was just beginning to enter all our minds. I had no idea and for once they weren't asking me but expressing only feelings.
"Well, there's the road house, where we keep the snow mobiles in the winter. The trailer we put there is nearly filled with stuff like JD suggested a few weeks back. We could stay there." Howard knew about the road house cause it was his baby. It was a large, four bedroom house with attached garage and several large outbuildings. We had snow mobiles in one and the trailer in question had been filled with supplies. I'd gotten nervous when the lodge was besieged last month and wondered what would happen if we had to leave in a hurry. We had all our 'eggs' in one basket so to speak. It was decided we would load one of the trailers with clothes, food stuffs, medical supplies etc, just in case. Well, just in case arrived at lot sooner than I expected. The trouble was it couldn't be home to one, two,...twenty six of us for long. But right now would be fine.
"It wouldn't do any good to look around any more. We did that yesterday and last night. Clint can tell you that Valley east is in the same shape. I thought we'd buried all the bodies, must've missed that one so I'll take care of that and we can get to the road house. Or if you want, just go ahead and I'll catch up later." Mason said. He was referring to the arm that Mandy saw earlier.
"No way am I letting you out of my sight for a bit. I'll help if you all want to go on." I was being a girl...so sue me.
"I think we can wait a bit longer, JD. Randy can help Mason bury the...a...". Lacy said, clearly not tracking too well herself.
"Come on," Randy said to Mason, "we'll take care of this then get the women and children to roadhouse."
I didn't want to watch but everywhere I looked was just too horrible, so I walked to the stream and sat on the bank putting my feet into the water. Soon, I was joined by more people who tried to ignore the sounds of digging, each lost in our own thoughts. Lacy sat beside me and thought, What are we gonna do with all these people, JD? That road house isn't big enough for this many people.
I know, kiddo, I'm trying to think but my mind is so slow I can barely operate. I guess my brain isn't generating enough power to keep my legs moving at the moment. Give me some time, an hour or so, and I should be back to half power at least. All I think about right now is how thirsty I am. I swung my feet back and forth in the cloudy water. It looked good enough to drink but I don't think it was clean enough. Still, it did give me pause. But I just sat and stared at it like everyone else. Bubba didn't seem to mind how dirty it was however, he just lapped it up.
We needed to get to the road house soon. Davy, the baby was going to need to eat and we had stored quite a bit of formula for her. We had managed to wean her of a lot of things, but she still took a bottle and she was getting fussy. About the time I decided we'd better head that way, the men returned and we climbed out of the creek and headed for the gate.
I nearly ran into the back of Melody when she stopped abruptly to look towards her brothers grave. Flynn put his arm around her and waited as I slowly walked around her. I'd let them say their goodbyes while I tried to muster the strength not to mourn the loss of my home.
I was surprised to see the gate. It had been rammed aside with what looked like a tank. The remains of the tank in question was sitting, smoldering to one side. It must've hit one of the many mines we had in the area trying to move the gate. There was enough room to get around it and the tanker to get to the road. There were several trucks sitting there, one with the hood up and another wrecked along side of the road. Looked like they'd gotten into a fire fight with themselves. I wouldn't look in the cabs as we walked by. I'd had enough horror to last me awhile. Still, one of the other ladies had more guts and when she gasped I turned and saw Sissy slumped behind the wheel of a truck, a bullet between her eyes. Next to her, just as dead, was one of the guys from Valley East that had run off with her. Well, that explained a lot.
"Leave her." I said. When Sandy, our nurse started to object, I raised my bow and pointed at her. "Leave. Her." She backed up a step, then walked wide around me and down the road. No one else objected. Sissy was a troublemaker from the word go. She finally left the lodge while I was in Arizona, to live with Don, the medic at Valley East. She caused enough trouble there that she left for parts unknown with one other member of Valley east. It was actually a relief and although, I hadn't wondered where she'd gone, I now knew. She wouldn't cause any more trouble. I had once threatened to kill her and feed her to the hogs. She had taken me at my word and was terrified of me. I should have gotten rid of her a long time ago. Now it was too late. I was fighting awfully hard not to take the blame for this but was finding it increasingly difficult.
"Stop it," Mason said. "It is not your fault. It's hers. Don't even try to take the blame for this. It may not have mattered if you'd killed her. No one here is blaming you, so by damned, don't you dare blame yourself. I won't have it." He squeezed my hand and I felt better. I must of been broadcasting so loud he heard my thoughts. Since we were both telepathic and spent a lot of time not talking but thinking to each other he caught what I was feeling.
We walked in silence the rest of the way to the road house. I was actually surprised to see it standing. Something so simple as a house could make me cry and I did. Randy ran to one of the larger sheds and when he returned I saw a look of relief on his face. The loaded trailer was still there. Well, maybe things were looking up. After what we'd been through, anything good that happened from here on in was worth smiling over.
Flynn took Davy from a tired Melody, who sat at the picnic table behind the house exhausted beyond belief. Randy and Howard returned with water and formula so they could feed Davy, change her stinking butt and water the rest of us. I was starting to itch from the soot and ash so I dragged my tired self back to the trailer and although it was fairly nice outside, it was an oven inside. I finally found the box with 'clothes' written on it, rummaged around in it for a minute till I found a set of red sweats for me and gray ones for Mason, then I started hunting for the dish soap. It's the only thing that cut the oil in the soot and made my hair silky and shiny.
"What ya looking for sis?" Lacy asked.
"Dish soap. I can't seem to find any." I said rummaging around in the crate marked 'kitchen supplies', head down, butt in the air. I heard a "I found it" and dropped onto the floor of the trailer in time to see Randy grab her and kiss her, hard.
"Come on, give me a break. If you're going to do that stuff to my baby sister, don't do it in front of me. You know I can't take it."
They laughed like I knew they would and started looking for clothes, as I left the trailer. When the others saw what I
had, they rose and slowly trudged towards the the trailer. I grabbed Masons hand and walked to the small creek behind the shed, found a bunch of bushes where I shed my clothes and began the tedious business of getting clean.
I was in the road house and hour later, opening windows and making beds when the others began to straggle in. A large kettle of water was getting ready to boil on the grill so we could eat some MRE's and drink hot chocolate. No one had the energy or mind set to go hunting so we just opted for something quick. We did open up a couple of cans of Spaghetti O's for the girls since we knew they couldn't gag an MRE down. It was just easier to open a can than fight with them about it. They thought it was neat but 'Clarissa had started asking when they were going home. I didn't envy Mercy or Sarah that task.
There was a couch that made out into a bed but that was about it. Several blow-up mattresses were brought out and would be inflated about bedtime. If we did it sooner the girls and dog would have entirely too much fun. The basement was finished so several of the guys would bunk down on the floor. We had two night vision goggles that the night guards would use and there were four guards set up for six hour shifts round the clock until we knew what we were doing. I was still drinking water like a camel. I had a small cough but after the last 36 hours it was understandable.
Everyone gathered around in the living room to discuss our future, except for the guards, who sat in trees and on top of the house. We had to decide what to do...this place was a roof over our heads but that was it. We didn't have any security and our weapons were few so we had to do something soon. I was picking at my spaghetti and meatballs a la freeze dried. Yuk.
"The way I see it," said Duke, "we need to find a place to live and supply up. That could only be a city."
Walkers (Book 3): The Survivors Page 1
