“Thank you.” Ali said.
Ali talking brought Caitlyn back to reality. She knew Zoey was out of her control now. All she could do was pray the Zombies missed her and she somehow made her way out of that house. Ali needed her though. Myriah and Doreen needed her too. She had to be strong for them. She could harbor all the ill will she wanted towards their kidnappers, but she needed to change how she was approaching them. She needed to do like Ali and show some appreciation. Attempt to be sociable with them. Pretend she was thankful to be kidnapped while her little sister had been left to die.
If she could get them to trust her then their guard may go down at some point. At that point she’d figure out a way to kill them all. Once these clowns were all dead, they could try and rescue Zoey. She just had to keep the steps in mind. One of the first steps was knowledge. She was completely lacking in any of that. Looking out the window wasn’t cluing her in to where they were at. She’d been unconscious for over half the time they’d been driving now.
“Yeah. Thanks for the water. Where’s the refugee camp?” Caitlyn asked trying to take on a nicer tone. The guard probably wasn’t fooled by the tone change at all but took it in stride. The guy would’ve made a great timeshare sales person.
“We’re almost there. Once we park, we’ll have to hike about a mile to get to the actual camp. We don’t have cars pull right up to it in case someone happens to be trailing a ton of Zombies behind them.”
“Aren’t you watching everything with those drones?” Caitlyn asked. She was wondering how she was going to be able to escape if they had those things flying around all the time. She guessed they could make a run at night if the drones didn’t do infrared or sense heat or anything fancy like that. She was hoping they just had the standard personal drones.
“We watch the main areas, but we don’t have the man power or the drones to watch everything all the time. We have other ways we watch. We’re learning how to live again. I think you’re going to like the camp. It’s at least got some security compared to how you’ve been living.” The man seemed to recognize that the security discussion was probably pretty awkward since the thing the girls had been trying to guard against had been them. He rushed to change the subject. “We’re almost there. If you’ll promise not to try to escape or beat anybody else up, I’ll go ahead and cut off those tie wraps so you can move your arms around again. Sound good?”
They pulled to a stop next to a line of other vehicles that’d been parked along the side of the road. There was a steep drop into a culvert on both sides of the road, so the vehicles were all only about halfway off the road. This meant one of the lanes was blocked for all practical purposes. Caitlyn sat in the back with her hands freed watching as four men in camouflage walked up the road towards them. The men had emerged out of the woods almost as soon as they’d parked. The group was led by a large black man with a shaved head who was flipping a hatchet in one hand as he walked. The rest of the men were pointing large caliber rifles at them.
The man in the driver’s seat of the van they were in got out and talked briefly to the man flipping the hatchet around. A few minutes later Caitlyn and Ali were reunited with Myriah and Doreen to begin the trek to the camp they were being taken to. Two of the men they’d been riding with came with them. The rest had gotten back into the vans and disappeared on some other mission. Caitlyn wondered if they were just driving around with the drones trying to find more survivors they could kidnap. Or, refugees they could save as they probably thought of their actions to themselves.
“How far is it?” Myriah asked one of the men escorting them. He muttered something about it not being very far and motioned for them to hurry up. He seemed nervous to be walking around out in the open.
“Is it safe out here?” Caitlyn asked. She’d picked up on the man’s nervousness. She was worried for Doreen if they got swarmed by a group of Zombies. The two men with them were both well-armed but there was no telling if they’d protect them or just take off running at the first sign of trouble.
“As safe as anywhere is these days.” The other camouflaged man answered. He looked like he might be on some sort of drugs. The way he was acting was just a little bit off. Not a lot but enough to make Caitlyn think he must be on something. She’d never actually seen anyone on drugs anywhere except on the Chicago Med TV show but the way the man was acting kind of reminded her of that.
They trudged onwards through the muggy hot day. They were surrounded on both sides by thick green Florida vegetation. Mosquitos were enjoying every inch of exposed skin they could find on the marching girls. Another side effect of the fall of humanity was the increase in the mosquito population. Without the mosquito control people driving around spraying poison on the still bodies of water the bugs were getting out of control. It’d gotten so bad that the girls barely even noticed the thick clouds of mosquitos anymore. It had become just another part of the misery of being outside in this post-apocalyptic paradise.
At the end of the long road there was an intersection with another road that was slightly larger. They turned on that road and walked past the entrance to a park. A man stood by the park entrance sign with an M-16. He waved to the men escorting them and then stepped back into the vegetation to continue guarding the entrance to the park. The park itself was visible through openings in the trees. Several of those large green canvas army tents had been setup across the overgrown baseball diamonds. They could see people moving around between the tents but for all the people they saw there was barely any noise reaching them out on the road. It was more people in a single place than the girls had seen in a long time. Caitlyn thought there may be a couple hundred people camped out in the fields.
Another hundred yards past the park was the entrance to the county fire department. Their escorts took them up to the booth by the large rolling gate and turned them over to another guard. He had them wait while he used the radio in the booth to call someone to come get them. Ten minutes later a man came out of a side door in the large building and walked over to the gate. The guard pressed a button and the gate rolled open. It’d been so long since the girls had seen something as simple as a gate opening at the press of a button that it seemed like witchcraft.
The gate closing behind them felt like the cell door closing on a man thrown in jail. Caitlyn felt trapped. Hope drained from her body. How was she going to escape the tall fences around her? How could she sneak a bunch of kids past all these guards with drones watching from the sky? She started to tear up thinking about Zoey in that house with the Zombies rushing in. Zoey trying to hide and wait for her sisters to come save her. She’d feel abandoned and alone. That’s how her little sister was going to die.
Myriah must’ve been thinking along the same line as she jumped when the gate clanked shut behind them. She didn’t look scared though. She looked pissed off. She looked ready to fight. Unfortunately, they didn’t have much of a chance with no weapons against grown, armed fighting men. The man who’d come out to greet them was trying to say hello to them.
“Is this bride school?” Myriah snapped at the man. She made it obvious the way she said it that she was sickened by everything the phrase implied.
“Where’d you hear that from?” The man asked her with a smile.
“The guards.” Myriah said. Before the man got a chance to answer Caitlyn jumped in.
“Our sister got left behind in a building that’s being surrounded by Zombies. How do we get someone to go rescue her?”
“I’m going to assume you let your guards now about your sister, right?” The man asked. When Myriah and Caitlyn nodded their heads in affirmation he continued. “Then I’m sure we’re already doing everything we can to save your sister. The best thing you guys can do is start getting adjusted to your new lives. I think you’re going to like it here.”
The man opened the door to the building and led them inside the dimly lit interior. The walls were concrete and seemed to go on forever. The long hallway was lined with doors on both si
des. An armed guard was seated at a desk by the door. He nodded at them as they came in and directed them to a room with ‘intake’ written in black sharpie on the door.
Inside that room they were made to take off their clothes to be examined by a hatchet-faced woman with little to no bedside manner. Feeling violated and embarrassed they were covered in some sort of delousing powder and then handed wet sponges to wash themselves off with. Caitlyn held Doreen and took care of her as gently as she could. At least they were still together. There was still hope they could break out and go rescue Zoey somehow. When the nurse was done with them, she sent them back out in the hallway in new clothes where they stood against the wall under the watchful eye of the guard.
A little while later a man and woman dressed in camouflage came down the hall. The woman stopped and talked to the nurse briefly then addressed the girls.
“Say your goodbyes for now. We split everyone up by age groups for training. You’ll be reunited once you’ve finished the training. We’ll give you a minute to do that while we grab the gear you’ll need.”
Caitlyn’s world crumbled around her. Ali and Doreen were both freaking out at the thought of being separated from them. Myriah was crying softly trying to comfort the two little ones. Caitlyn found herself trying to reason with the woman when she came back.
“Doreen and Ali really need to be with us. They’ve been with us since the beginning. you can’t just take them away like that.”
“Say your goodbyes now. You’ll be put in different groups for training.”
Doreen started screaming she wouldn’t leave. A man came out into the hallway and tried pulling Doreen away from Caitlyn. Myriah jumped at him raking her nails across his face. He backhanded her across the room. Caitlyn jumped in swinging a fist wildly at the man. More men appeared from another door and Caitlyn found herself pinned to the ground. The taste of blood in her mouth again. Sobs wracked her body as she watched her family torn apart. Doreen and Ali disappeared down the hall tossed across the broad shoulders of the camouflaged soldiers. Myriah was zip tied and marched into another room. Caitlyn could feel hope draining from her body. She lie still on the ground as zip ties were secured around her wrists before she was yanked painfully to her feet.
Chapter 17: Herd Reversal
Kyler walked out his cabin door and down the path to the administration building. Entering the building he saw there was a whole lot of activity going on. Not sure who to ask for his orders Kyler meandered over to a small table someone had set out some snacks on. He was trying to figure out how old the slices of cheese were when someone poked him in the back. Turning around he saw that it was Tom standing there with his hand stuck out. Kyler shook the older man’s hand wondering what the deal was.
“Welcome aboard. You’re supposed to be getting orders for reporting to one of the training depots but you’re going to be doing some OJT first. Got all your weapons and gear in a duffle bag out in the truck. Come on out with me. You’re going to be with me and my crew today.”
Kyler walked outside with Tom over to the pickup truck where the guys were busy loading boxes of grenades and ammunition.
“We declare war on a small country while I was sleeping?” Kyler asked.
“Nope.” Tom said. “The Zombies in that herd we saw yesterday are rolling past our exit right now. Once they get past it a little bit more, we’re going to hit them from behind and try to get them to follow us. Once they’re following us, we’ll hide and hopefully they’ll keep heading north.”
“We’re supposed to get that many Zombies to just turn around and follow us?”
“Oh yeah.” One of the guys loading boxes in the truck answered. “We’ll just come up behind them and start laying into the rear of the pack with grenades. The ones in the back will start screaming and chasing us and the rest of them should spin around and do the same thing. We might not get all of them to follow us, but it should be most of them.”
“Added bonus.” The guy Kyler recognized as the one who’d tied him up and left him in the back of the truck the day before looked over to chip in. “The ones in the back of the herd are the slowest ones. Hopefully we won’t have any more of that hopping in the truck with us garbage.”
Tom handed Kyler his bag with his gear in it. Kyler happily started strapping his weapons back on. He’d felt naked the day before walking around without the familiar weight of holstered weapons pulling at his belt and shoulders. It’d been even weirder to wake up in the morning and not be able to reach out and put his hand on some sort of weapon. He’d gotten used to sleeping with a knife or a pistol near his hand. The kitchen utensil he’d shoved under his pillow like a lost tooth hadn’t been a great substitute.
Sliding a hatchet into the back of his belt he hopped up on the tailgate and swung his legs around to climb into the bed of the truck. This time one of the other guys was going to be stuck back there with him. There was also another truck that’d be driving along beside them in case anything happened. That truck just had a single driver in it. If they got a flat tire or the engine blew up on them, they’d be able to hop out and switch trucks before the Zombies could catch up.
It made sense from a mission point of view as well since the Zombies stopping to kill and eat them if they got a flat tire would slow down their northerly momentum. The whole idea was to get them moving as fast as possible in a direction that was out of Georgia. Kyler hadn’t heard anyone express any concern as to what would happen to the citizens of South Carolina because of this plan. He couldn’t think of a way to casually bring that up in conversation either without it raising a bunch of other questions he’d rather avoid. He decided for now he’d just perform his role and not worry about it. It’d be a good chance to gather operational data about how these guys worked. Plus, if they pulled it off this’d be a neat maneuver to be able to duplicate up north.
Kyler sat in the back thinking about how this kind of maneuvering could end up looking like a ping pong match between the two states while he waited for them to get moving. If South Carolina pulled off the same maneuver and flung the herd back to the south to be dealt with. Zombie herds being used as WMDs between the two factions. He didn’t think that was the idea here though. The idea here seemed to be more of just getting rid of the Zombies before they did too much damage to the south. The damn things had come from the north to begin with so why not send them back that way? For all they knew the people to the north were responsible for the herd moving this way.
The sound of the engine turning over brought him back to reality. They’d been waiting on confirmation that the herd had moved past the exit before heading in that direction. They must have received that confirmation as Tom started driving them down the road towards the interstate.
“I’m Pete.” The big guy sitting next to him announced. It was the first words the guy had said to him since telling him to move the day before when he’d started shooting the Zombies jumping in the back of the truck.
“Kyler.” Kyler stuck his hand out and Pete gave it a quick firm handshake.
“Ok. Well between Tom’s driving and me being stuck with a kid who hasn’t graduated high school, I feel like today may end up sucking. We’ve got a box of grenades and a shitload of loaded magazines to run through. You know how to shoot at least?” Pete asked.
“Yep. I can also tie my own shoes and pull the pin out of a grenade and toss it behind us. How many times have you guys done this?” Kyler asked. He was trying to figure out how proficient they were at it. Any useful tips he could pick up to stay alive today would be appreciated as well as possibly turning out to be valuable intel.
“You mean how many times have we attacked the rear column of a massive mob of tens of thousands of insane infected to try and get them to turn around and go the other way?” Pete smiled at him. “Counting today that would be exactly one time. This is not a normal daily thing for us. Killing a few Zombies here and there no problem. Getting a few hundred to move from one side of some deserted town to the oth
er no problem. Tens of thousands marching down the interstate towards our major centers. Problem.”
Kyler absorbed that bit of unwelcome information as they drove. Over the steady hum of the engine and the howling of the wind around him in the open truck bed he picked up a roar that sounded like a waterfall. He sat up and looked over the edges of the truck, but they weren’t going over a bridge and he didn’t see any bodies of water running beside them. The noise grew louder as they drove until it dawned on Kyler it was probably the roar of a few thousand Zombies going down the interstate less than a mile from them.
They stopped again. This time Tom made a point of indicating they shouldn’t speak. The roar from the Zombies passing was so loud Kyler doubted they’d be heard anyway but he agreed with Tom on not risking it. He knew he wasn’t super excited about what they were preparing to do. Getting the attention of that many Zombies on purpose was akin to suicide. Then after they got the attention of the Zombies instead of driving like madmen to get away from them, they were going to stay close enough to tease the mob along.
Zombies! (Book 3): Violence Solves Everything Page 16
