Born In The Apocalypse (16 page)

Chapter 37

I picked up my fallen bow and arrow then went over to my friend.

“Trey, what’s wrong man? You just saved my life!” I said, brushing the snow off my coat.

Trey gave a heaving sob. “They killed Trish, Josh! They killed her, and it was my fault!”

“Whoa! What happened? Oh, no. Not Trish,” I said. I felt horrible. Trish was his youngest sister. She was five and was always smiling and playing.

Trey looked at me with tear-filled eyes. “I don’t know what happened. I went out to the lines yesterday to check for rabbits and such. I got back in, and I know I closed the gate. I know it!” Trey raised his eyes to the sky and closed them tight. Fresh tears flowed and with a monumental effort got himself under control. He wiped his face and then started walking back to his house, and I followed. If there were four Trippers out here there might be more. I kept an arrow ready in my bow just in case.

We walked over to Trey’s house, and it was just a mess over there. Trey’s mom was holding her baby and crying; Trey’s dad was holding his baby girl’s hand and just shaking great big tears out. Trey’s older sisters were just standing in the background with sad, shocked looks on their faces.

Trey put a hand on his dad’s shoulder. “I got the Trippers, dad. Josh killed three, I got the last one.”

Trey’s dad looked over his shoulder at his son. A strange look came into his eyes as he stood up and faced his son. Trey’s dad wasn’t a big man, but at that moment he looked huge, wearing his grief like a second coat.

Trey’s dad looked at me. “Thank you Josh. Trey, I’m going to ask you one question. Did you secure the gate yesterday?”

Trey looked up at his dad. “I did. Just like I always did, dad. I know I did!”

“
Then how did the damn Trippers get in the yard to kill my baby?
” Trey’s dad roared at his son.

“Dad, I didn’t!” Trey yelled.

“It wasn’t his fault!” I said, probably louder than I should have.

Trey’s dad focused his anger on me. “What do you know about it?” He took a step forward, and I took a step back, bringing up my bow.

“Stop!” I yelled. “I don’t want to hurt you, Mr. Chambers! Trey didn’t do it! I know he didn’t!” I shouted as I stepped back to make room. Trey’s family went silent as they watched me threaten to kill their father.

Trey’s dad saw my bow and arrow ready to fly, and for a second he got angrier. But he must have seen in my eyes I was serious, and he backed off with his hands raised. “How do
you
know, Josh?” he asked with clenched teeth.

I told him about the man who propped open my gate last night and the arrow I put into him. I figured he must have done the same thing at Trey’s house, but managed to do so without being caught. Unfortunately, Trish was outside when the Trippers came through.

When I finished my story, the change in Trey’s dad and Trey was immediate.  Both of them stared at me, and then Trey’s dad brought his son in close for a deep hug. I heard him whisper he was sorry for yelling at him and hoped he could forgive him.

Trey’s dad then came over to me. “I’m sorry, Josh. Please forgive me,” he said in a small voice.

“I’m sorry for your loss,” I said. “When you’re ready, I can show you the blood trail and the footprints. I know which way he went.”

Trey’s dad nodded. “I have a daughter bury first. But I will be over soon.”

I turned to leave, and Trey nodded his gratitude.

“Thanks, Josh. I owe you,” Trey said.

“Let’s just get this guy, huh?” I said.

Chapter 38

A day later in the morning, Mr. Chambers was out behind my house looking at the snow and the story it told. He swept back and forth, looking at the signs, and then started following a trail. He was armed with his hunting rifle, a handgun, and what looked like a baseball bat with big screws in it. Trey wasn’t with him; he was staying behind to help back home. I personally thought Trey’s dad was a little nuts for going off on his own, but then I realized he had survived the worst days of the infection and managed to keep his family alive, but things could happen. Hell, my own father died from Trippers, and he should have been one of the ones who lived.

After a while, Trey’s dad was lost from view, and I started working on the chores that kept me busy. I let Judy run in the yard, and while she did that I walked the path down to the creek. The water was still flowing well, but there was a feeling of even colder weather coming, so I used my hatchet to break open a hole, and I gathered water in the two buckets I brought with. When I got back to the house, I filled Judy’s water trough and then went up in the loft of the garage and took down a measure of hay. I filled Judy’s feed bin, then got the shovel out for the worst of the chores. I swear that horse ate extra on purpose.

I got Judy back into the garage and gave her a rubdown to get the cold out of her. I didn’t think I’d be taking her out anywhere today, so I buckled her blanket on her, and left her to her breakfast.

I checked the woodpile and brought up a few more hardwood logs to my room, and I worked the hand pump in the kitchen to clear the line and make sure it wasn’t frozen. We had a freeze in the line a while back, and Dad cleared it out by pouring hot water back into the line and thawing it out.

I went down to the basement to check on my food stores, and I figured I had enough to last me the next two months. That would take me right about to the end of winter if I paced myself.  I read in a book how to jerk meat and was trying it a corner of the basement. The rabbit strips I put up there were pretty stringy, but the venison jerky seemed to be doing well.

Once everything was done, I restarted the fire that had gone out, and soon the fireplace was a warm and inviting place. I stayed in the living room most of the time, usually because it was warmer. I had my books, I practiced my draw, and I worked on my education. My mother wouldn’t want me to stop learning, so I worked my way through the textbooks she had and dove into the history books and literature. It took a me a few passes at Shakespeare before he started to make sense, but I really liked Poe and Steinbeck. Sometimes I felt like my mother was over my shoulder, smiling that I was still working at reading and educating myself.

On the day after Trey’s dad had gone after the man who had opened the gates, Trey came over. He had to get out of the house as everything in there made him sad. I knew what he was going through and figured he just needed some friendship.

“Dad came back late last night,” Trey said, gnawing on a piece of rabbit jerky.

“Did he catch the guy who opened your gate?” I asked.

Trey shook his head. “Nope. Dad got too far away from home following the trail and had to turn back. He couldn’t stay away from his family.”

“That’s too bad.” I said. “Maybe the guy will die from infection or blood loss from my arrow,” I said.

Trey shook his head. “After the first couple miles Dad said he didn’t see any blood trail anymore. He must have found a way to stop the bleeding.”

“That sucks. Is he going out again?” I asked, washing down my jerky with some very cold water.

“Nope. He wants me to,” Trey said.

I must have not done a good job of keeping the surprise off my face, because Trey pointed a finger at me.

“And you’re coming, too,” Trey said.

“We taking the horses?” I asked, thinking about what I would do with Judy if I was unable to bring her.

“Nope. To hear my dad talk about it, this guy was literally running a maze, trying to lose him. After a while, he lost the trail and came home. Judy will board with my family, and my older sister will stop by once a day to make sure everything is okay at your house. But we’re moving out in an hour,” Trey said. “I’ll come get you, and we’ll start again. With the snow we’ve had, we should get a good line on him, or at least a good idea where he’s headed.”

“All right, I’ll get my cold weather gear and get ready.” I stood up and looked at Trey. “And if we find him?” I asked.

“I kill him. I owe Trish that,” Trey said.

I looked at him and saw the same look I had in my own eyes after my parents were killed. Trey had changed, too.

I changed my clothes and packed a backpack with supplies. I put my Colt in there along with a small pouch of spare ammo. I tied my quiver to the pack, and I made sure I had plenty of arrows. I kept my knife on my belt, and I packed spare socks, a spare shirt, and plenty of jerky. I also brought some cotton and matches. I put an extra blanket in there as well. It was a thin quilt made by my mom. Despite its light weight, it was very warm. I also brought my heater can, which my dad made for me, and a few small candles.

Trey came over, and together we secured the house, then we took Judy over to his barn. Pumpkin was happy to have company, and I could tell Judy was, too. Trey’s family wished us luck, and Trey’s dad had some words for us as we left.

“Don’t take any chances. I’m sending you two because you’re better trackers than I am, and you’ve had each other’s backs since you were little. I’m forcing you to grow up a little faster than you should, but thanks to the damn virus, you haven’t had much of a childhood anyway. You get this man, Trey. He’s a danger to everyone who’s trying to survive this mess. You get him, and don’t think twice about it,” he said.

Trey nodded, and we started walking up the road. Trey’s dad told us he had followed the trail as it passed through subdivision. He marked the place where it had crossed the back road heading north, and we went that way.

In my own head, I wondered how much destruction this one man had caused, and what we might be walking into as we trailed him back to his lair.

Chapter 39

We didn’t say much as we walked, and pretty soon we passed the Simpson’s old house. The place was deserted, and there were still bones in the yard. The front door was open, and we could see where animals had been in and out.

Rounding the corner, we headed west and passed a few more homes. Some were occupied; some were not. As we moved I watched the sky, trying to figure out when the next snow was going to fall. If we were lucky, we would catch up to the man before the next heavy fall. If not, we’d lose him for good. I didn’t see any snow on the horizon, and the sun was coming up, sending bright rays all through the world.

Up ahead, we saw a stick standing upright on the side of the road. A small string was tied around the top of the stick, holding another stick in place. The other stick was cut in two places, forming a small arrow that pointed north.

I cocked my head at the sign. “Geez. You’d think your dad had more confidence in us than that.”

Trey shook his head. “This is tame compared to what he did when I was learning how to track. He once stuck a stick in every footstep a deer made just to make sure I saw the tracks.”

“Well, let’s see what we’re after here,” I said, bending down and taking a look at the tracks. I pushed the snow away from the imprint, being careful not to knock any on the print itself. The point here was to see if there were any strange things on the footprint that would distinguish it from others if it happened to cross another trail.

“Normal boot print,” I said. “But look up here.” I pointed to the toe of the boot which, based on instep, was the left foot. “There’s a cut on the tread, third from the top. Looks like it’s missing about half the tread.”

Trey nodded. “All right. We got him. No place to run if he leaves a print anywhere. You ready?”

I brought my bow up and pulled my string from my inside pocket. That was a trick my dad taught me. If a bowstring was cold, it could snap, which could take your eye out if you were unlucky. I quickly strung my bow and gave it a test pull, keeping my face away from the string. Nothing snapped, so we were good for a while. If the temperature dropped, I was going to have to take the string off and warm it up.

“Let’s do it. I’ll watch the terrain; you keep your eye on the tracks,” I said.

We walked into the yard of a home that had been abandoned and followed the tracks to the back yard. The home butted up against some railroad tracks, and we followed the trail down the train line for about a quarter mile west, then the tracks led north again, cutting through a hole in the thick brush.

Trey and I followed, and when the brush opened up, we found ourselves in another subdivision. The homes in this area were substantially larger than the ones we were used to.

“Looks like this area has been hit more than once, if you know what I mean,” Trey said, following the tracks through the yard toward the main road.

“No kidding,” I said. The houses, as big as they were, had been hit at least once by the Trippers and then again by looters and drifters. The one we passed had all of the ground floor windows busted in and a couple of the upstairs. It was too bad, since it seemed like it was a nice house.

The houses next to it were in the same condition, and all up and down the road the houses were the same way. Some had their garage doors open, and it looked like anything of use or value had been taken. One garage was huge, and my first thought was I could stable Judy in there with a friend and still have room for when Pumpkin came to visit.

My next thought when I looked at the homes was how hard it would be to heat one of those big places. Guess that wasn’t a worry when everything worked back in the days before Tripp.

“Come on, the tracks lead this way,” Trey said.

We followed the trail down across the road and into a small valley. As we walked, I could see a huge expanse of land spreading out to the east. It was loosely populated with trees, and a creek wound its way around the area. It would be the perfect place to run Judy if I could make sure it was safe.

A house was at the bottom of the valley, and it looked like it had once had people in it who had made it through the worst times. The yard was surrounded with a solid wood fence, and behind the house was a decent sized pond for water. I made a mental note to check this place out later when I had more time. Right now it looked shuttered and abandoned.

We followed the tracks to the creek as they swerved along the water, crossing a bridge. We moved across the entire open area, and on the other side was another subdivision. This one had homes that were even larger, and the tracks went right through the middle of them. I looked off to the east and saw the biggest home I had ever seen. It was at least four times the size of one of the homes we had passed, and was all pillars and windows.

“Jeez, who lived there?” I asked Trey, pointing at the big house.

Trey shook his head. “Dunno. Governor, maybe? Hey, watch yourself. The tracks go into that house.”

“Got it. I’ll check around back to see if he left,” I said, circling around towards the rear of the house. I had to go through a garden gate, and I kept tripping over something hard in the snow. I circled wide and kept my arrow pointed at the house. If the man was there, he was going meet another pointy object in a hurry.

The back of the house was a tangled mess of trees and long grass. A large glass enclosure at the back of the house contained what looked like the remains of several large plants and even a couple of trees.

I checked the snow and found that the tracks led out the back door of the house and into the next yard. I whistled for Trey, and in a minute he was back leading the way.