Authors: Ann Riley
“How you doing girlie?” I ask her.
“Oh, I’m fine. Just sitting here thinking about all this shit. Trying to understand how they could let something like this happen with all the medicines and testing we have now.” Tammy says.
She is an RN, so she knows her medicine.
“Yeah, messed up, huh?” I tell her.
“Yeah.” She says.
“So y’all made it here ok, no trouble?” I ask her.
“Yeah. We went right to the house y’all had gone to and talked to Todd. He told us to check out the road that y’all went down. Well, we did. And they tried to take us. Or shoot us. But we shot them up and they ran off so we followed. They led us to where y’all were being held. So we hid the truck and waited around. I had the binoculars out looking. I saw Trey’s red head walking around when y’all escaped and then saw the rest of y’all. So we rolled down to the guard tower, took out the guard, I pushed the gate down and we came in with the zombies.” Tammy says.
“Nice.” I say.
“We are going to have to watch for humans as well as zombies. There are people taking advantage of the situations now. There is no law and people with twisted minds are doing what they always wanted to do without any consequences now. It’s not enough to have to deal with zombies, we have to deal with the marauders too. And don’t you be afraid to shoot to kill. They will kill if they have a chance.” I say.
“Yeah, I think we just saw that.” Tammy says.
“Yeah.” I say.
“Becky, I am so glad you loaded up and came looking.” I say to Becky.
“I couldn’t not come. I was worried so I got Tammy and Kelley and we came.” Becky says.
I walk over to Kelley and she is still sipping.
“Hey.” I tell her. She hands me her thermos.
“Get you a drink.” Kelley says.
“Don’t mind if I do. I need to settle my nerves.” I tell her.
“Now you sound like Tammy.” Kelley says.
“What? She has been on the bottle too?” I ask.
“Oh yeah. She had to settle her nerves a couple of times.” Kelley says with a snort of laughter.
“Have y’all just been down here drunk the whole time? Hiding from us? Sloshed in the tree line?” I ask laughing.
“I wish.” Kelley says.
We finished eating and got everything loaded back up. Marc comes over to us and says we need to go look for some supplies while we are out because of the band of asses taking all ours. Since all we have in our area where we are now and the area we live in, we will have to go to Tennessee to get weapons. I mean, unless we want to go get golf clubs and sports equipment that is. I’m in no hurry to get close enough to a zombie to hit it with a golf club.
So we head out towards Tennessee, specifically, Memphis. We are a couple of hours away if we have no problems along the way.
We make it to highway 78 west. Along the way, we see vehicles parked, wrecked, left with doors open all along the road side. Some even look to still have people… err zombies, in them. Looks like they were attacked in the car with seat belts on and after turning didn’t know how to get the belts off. Zombies are ambling around the vehicles. I guess looking for live food. We continue our way into Memphis. We aren’t sure where to go since we have no navigation system. Then, lo and behold, Kelley pulls out a map. We stop and get a phone book from a convenience store that has a broken out front door. We get out and go in to see if there is anything we can bring out, like water, food and beef jerky. Tammy and Trey collect all those supplies and Diane and I look around for soda or juices. Bobby loads up the truck with oil for a vehicle. You can never tell when it will come in handy. Marc and Becky are looking for Sporting Goods stores in the area. They have found 2 so we decide to try them both. One is a Mossy Oak store, so maybe they will have ammo and weapons.
We load back in the trucks and head out to Mossy Oak. Since there are 8 of us, 4 will go in and 4 will watch the trucks.
“So who is going in and staying?” I ask.
“You, Bobby, Marc and Becky go in and the rest of us will stay out.” Diane says.
“Oh gee, thanks.” I tell her.
“Get the flashlights out.” Marc tells Becky.
So in we go with rifles and flashlights.
We head over to the firearm section first. Bobby gets behind the counter and starts handing them over. Me and Becky walk over to the knives and start picking up some, thankful we got a shopping cart as we came in. Marc goes over and grabs ammo for the guns Bobby handed over. Becky and I wander on over to the clothing section and grab some boots for everyone and coats. We also get a box of MREs. Meals ready to eat. I heard they taste like shit, but are full of protein for the military to eat while in the field. And I pick up a camouflage doggie coat for Riley. Well, he needs a coat too.
Suddenly we hear a shot.
“Zombies or marauders?” I ask.
“Not sure.” Bobby replies.
“Let’s go.” Marc says.
We head back out of the store and duck down at the exit to see what is going on. Zombies. Just great.
We put rifles to shoulders and start firing.
Tammy, Kelley, Trey and Diane are in the back up the truck firing. It looks to be about a hundred or so. Give or take a few dozen. And looking out on the other side of the trucks, it looks like another horde coming.
We have cleared a path out to the trucks. Becky and I push the carts out while Marc and Bobby continue firing. We get to the trucks and start throwing stuff up to Diane to load. Trey, Kelley and Tammy are still firing.
“A 50 cal sure would come in handy now Marc.” I say.
“Well, we saw a military supply store in the phone book, we are going there next. Keep your panties on.” He tells me.
“Oh goody, I may get my 50 cal.” I yell.
“You need help.” Diane says.
“Yeah, help getting this shit loaded, move it woman.” I tell Diane.
Becky lets out a snort and says, “Y’all are crazy.”
“Runs in the family. And it has rubbed off on you, so shut it little woman.” I tell Becky.
We get all the goods loaded and Becky gets in to drive Marc’s truck and Tammy slides through the back window to drive Becky’s truck. And we are off again.
We find our way out to the military store and it’s like a weapons hoarder dream come true. I have fallen in love.
The parking lot is empty, again that means nothing. We drive alongside the store and to the back.
Yep, loading dock doors are open. And probably full of zombies waiting for dinner guests to join them.
Again, Marc, Bobby, Becky and I go in. It’s so dark you can’t see your hand in front of your face. So we pull out flashlights. We go through what looks to be a break room and through a swinging double door and out into the store area. It has been rambled through, but there are still a lot of items here. So we start looking for more weapons. Of course I set out in search of my 50 cal.
“Look at all this stuff.” I tell Bobby.
He just looks at me like I am crazy. He probably thinks I am.
My first find? M84 stun grenades. Oh yes. They may be nonlethal, low hazard, non-shrapnel producing explosive device intended to confuse, disorient or momentarily distract potential threats, but they will produce a temporary incapacitation to a threat. I load up on these. Next I find hand grenades. And they produce shrapnel. Watch out ass hats. I continue my search and come upon…. I don’t know.
“Hey Marc, what is this?” I ask.
“An RPG.” He says.
“Ah, rocket propelled grenade. I’ll pass on that I think. I would probably blow myself up.” I reply.
“But you want a 50 cal?” Marc asks, with a snort.
“Shut it.” I say.
Oh, but I do know what this is. I find an M120 mortar. And finally, with a tear in my eye, I focus in on my beautiful Browning M2HB belt fed, 200 link 50 cal. Oh the joy. I know people think I may be crazy, but, you can mow zombies down like you are mowing the lawn with a brand new sharpened blade on your mower.
Bobby and Marc walk over.
“Well, I see you found it.” Bobby says.
“Yes, yes I did.” I reply.
“Are you crying?” Marc asks.
“Leave me alone and let me enjoy my bliss.” I tell Marc.
They shake their heads.
We got all we came for. So we head back out of the store.
Gunshots ring out.
“Damn, again.” I say.
“It’s not zombies this time.” Bobby says.
“How many?” Marc asks.
“Looks like four or five. They probably think the women are alone out there.” Bobby says.
I look over at Marc. Well, it seems that the nephew has found himself an M4 carbine with a 40mm grenade launcher attached to it. And he is getting it ready for first use.
“Are they far enough away from the trucks so grenade doesn’t impact Tammy and the others in the back of the trucks?” I ask Marc.
“I am going to the front doors. I am going to fire from there. It may rattle our trucks, but shouldn’t do any damage to them or the people in there.” Marc says.
Marc heads to the front. Becky goes to watch his back and Bobby and I get ready to fire from where we are. There are no shots being fired right now. The idiots are obviously trying to take Tammy, Diane, Kelley and Trey right now.
I am looking right at Becky’s truck. Kelley looks over at me and I hold my hand up and make the gesture for them to get down. She turns back around and I can see her look over towards a side window that’s kind of catty cornered not far from where the band of idiots are. She sees Marc I assume. She has apparently told everyone quietly to drop down, because everyone drops from sight in the truck. And a window breaks and idiot’s car blows. It doesn’t just blow, it blows about twenty feet in the air and lands in a ball of flames. That was almost as good as my Molotov cocktail.
We get back in the vehicles and start to leave. Of course we have some adoring followers now. We start taking them out so we can get around and out to the highway.
If everything goes well, we should be at the foxhole in a couple of hours. We are all tired and ready for sleep at this point. We pull over at a rest stop when we get out of Memphis to get a bite to eat and stretch our legs. We don’t get to stay long as some errant zombies have spotted us. So we get back in and leave out. Damn, I could stretch some more. I am tired of riding.
About an hour from home, as we are crossing a bridge, we see a horde of zombies surrounding a home. Not again, I think.
“What is going on there?” Diane asks.
“Well, my guess is the zombies are trying to crash a dinner party. I think I can try out my 50 cal now” I say.
“May as well, it seems to be burning a hole in your pocket.” Diane says.
“Hey. It isn’t in my pocket.” I say with a snort.
Marc crosses over the bridge and stops at the end. The house is not too far from the end of the bridge. I tell Marc, “You know I have to set this on top of your truck, right?”
“Damn it to hell. Does it not have enough dents?” He asks.
“Stop whining.” I tell him.
I get out and Bobby helps me get the 50 cal into the back of the truck and up on the cab. This bastard is heavy I think to myself.
Since I have been reading the manual, yes, surprisingly a 50 cal comes with a manual, I start setting it up. Fairly easy to set up.
So now I am getting nervous as this is the gun of all guns. It will shoot the distance. And I am pretty sure will knock me on my ass. So I brace myself and get my feet planted. I stuff my ears with some gauze Diane hands me. I lower my head to the scope, and open my mouth a little. I saw that in a move. And I fire. I am glad that I had put it on burst mode instead of auto. Burst mode allows three shots to come out in a fast sequence. That almost toppled me off the truck. Had it been on auto, I would be in the dirt. I hear Marc yell, “You’re fucking up my truck.” I reply back with, “No worse than I am fucking myself up.”
I get back in my firing stance and pull the trigger again. This time, the zombies start dropping like flies doused with Black Flag. Damn, I think I got something here.
Soon, most of the zombies are down. I see a woman peep from behind a curtain in the house. She looks around then steps out of the door. She gives us a wave. We drive down a little closer so we don’t have to yell out and Marc tells her some things she needs to get done to protect the house. She said her husband has gone to get supplies and she will tell him when he comes back. She thanks us for killing the zombies and we continue our drive home.
We finally get to our driveway, and are shocked at what we see. A big ass horde of zombies have congregated around the house. We can hear shots ringing out and they look to be coming from the top of the house? We drive in as close as we can get. The zombies have run down the fencing that was up and have gathered at the house.
“Holy hell.” I say.