Surviving The Zombie Apocalypse (Book 2): Conflict (23 page)

Increasing
our numbers would be a good thing, and with expanded housing already underway
providing shelter shouldn’t be an issue. We hadn’t planted any crops, aside
from an exceptionally large garden, but we had checked the neighboring farms.
There was plenty of corn and wheat coming up on its own. The stuff we’d
harvested the prior year was sufficient to keep everyone full in the meantime,
at least regarding staples like bread. Accepting a few dozen more shouldn’t be
any problem at all.

*
* *

“Let’s
go outside. It’s nice and sunny, and it’ll be good for Asher.”

“Mary,”
began Briana, with undisguised and unrepentant irritation in her voice, “I can
barely stand up. I am not going for a walk, and no, you can’t take Asher
yourself. He’s already been out four times this morning with you and two more
with Steph. He needs his rest.”

“Come
on,” begged the teenager, “he sleeps all the time. It’s not going to mess up
his rest one bit.”

“He does
sleep a lot,” I commented.

“Asher’s
a newborn! They’re supposed to sleep all the time. There’s nothing wrong with
him!”

Oh. My.
God.

“I
didn’t say there was anything wrong.”

“Nope,”
added Mary, from her spot near the door. She was bouncing up and down. “He just
pointed out that babies sleep a lot, which they do. You’re being nutty.”

She
managed to dodge the coffee mug, which shattered on the wall behind her.

Let’s
give a double... Oh. My. God.

“Briana,
you really need to not kill our most willing babysitter.”

“That’s
right! No killing me!” Mary edged further away. “And that was a nutty thing to
do.”

“I’m
blaming it on the hormones, which means I don’t have to apologize.” Briana
softened. “But I am sorry.”

A smile
touched the girl’s lips. “You’re forgiven, but I’m telling Lizzy you attempted
Marycide. Shame. Shame.”

“You do
that,” snarled Briana, her face going crimson. She stopped herself. “That’s it.
I think I need rest more than the baby. I’m going to take a nap with Asher, so
both of you out. Go do something productive.”

“I’m
rather tired myself.”

She cut
me off with a wave of her hand. “Mary, get out and take Jacob with you.”

Flashing
her trademark grin, the teenager grabbed my arm. “Hurry up and bring your
rifle.”

“Whatever
for?”

I lacked
the energy and desire to go hunting.

“To
check the supply caches. We should do that, what with the war going on. We
might need them one day.”

Straight
forward hiking, that I could handle. I retrieved the hunting rifle.

“True
enough, but it’s not a war.”

“Yes,
Jacob,” said Briana, as I was pulling the door closed behind us, “it is.”

*
* *

“Lizzy’s
cranky.” Mary hopped up on a boulder and looked around, not that there was
anything to see other than trees, a few bushes, some poison ivy. “Not as much
as Briana has been but more than normal. I’m telling you, everyone seems
broken.”

“What’s
up with Lizzy?”

“Harlan
said they were having trouble moving the people to the fire station, so she’s
having to sit there twiddling her fingers. Lizzy is terrible when it comes to
patience. Hey, do you think there’ll be more babies coming back with her?”

“No
idea. It would be nice for Asher to have some playmates, when he’s old enough
to play.”

Mary
giggled. “All he does now is eat, sleep, make his diaper dirty, and spit up on
you.”

“Just
wait until Briana decides you’re capable of really watching him. Then it’ll be
your turn to go through three or four shirts a day.”

“Asher
won’t puke on me. I’m his favorite aunt.”

Aunt?

“Shouldn’t
it be big sister? Or maybe an older cousin?”

“Nah.
The way I figure it is that you and Lizzy are like brother and sister. You have
to be, seeing how she tolerates you way more than anyone else. You’re the same
age too.”

“I’m a
lot older than her,” I interrupted.

“You’re
both so far up there that it doesn’t matter.”

There
are times when thirteen year old logic hurts.

“So,”
continued Mary, “since Lizzy used to date my sister she’s also kinda my sister.
That makes me your sister, so I’m Asher’s aunt. Aunt Mary. Remember that.”

“You
tell this to Briana?”

“I’ll
let her know I’m family later. That means you can never get rid of me. Never or
never never.”

“According
to your reasoning, Lizzy is family too, which means I can’t get rid of her
either. Dreadful thought.”

“That’s
mean,” she laughed. “I’m going to tattle, unless you bribe me with was at least
five pounds of chocolate.”

“Not
going to happen squirt. Wasn’t there a Tahoe around here? I thought we stashed
it on this trail.”

“Past
those trees, I think.” She jumped off the rock and sprinted forward with long,
easy strides. “Yep, I see it. A bird crapped all over the windshield. The
wrecked Oldsmobile with the stuff in the trunk is just over there too, behind
the big cedar.”

I took
my time joining her. “Go ahead and start the engine. We’ll let it run a while
and make certain the battery is still good.”

“Jacob!
Look over there.” She was pointing, frantically. “Look! Look!”

A wolf.

“Wow,” I
said, quietly.

The
animal was large with a dark gray coat, lighter about its eyes. It was staring
at us and gave no indication of being afraid.

“Beautiful.
Think it was somebody’s pet once or wild? Maybe from a zoo?”

“I don’t
know Mary. It seems interested in us.”

She
stiffened and fingered the pistol at her side. “Interested as in eating?”

“I doubt
it. It’s not starving. Probably been dining on calves or goats. Lots of them
around.”

The wolf
turned and bounded away, disappearing into the trees.

“We need
to tell everyone about it when we get back,” I said. “Steph in particular needs
to know, in case she wants to change anything. I don’t think any wolves would
go for the pens, being so close to the castle and with people around, but it
could happen.”

*
* *

It turned
out that our discovery was of only mild interest, being overshadowed by the
loss of communications. Harlan was trying to find out what went wrong, but it
appeared a relay or satellite had gone dark. No one in the Ranching Collective
could get hold of the military. We couldn’t even reach Salt Lake City. It was
just Wyoming and us.

“Any
ideas?” asked Steph.

“There’s
nothing we can do at our end,” replied Harlan, disgusted. He leaned back in his
chair. “Have some people checking around Rock Springs. That seems to be where
the problem is. There’s a big tower there, and that’s the only spot that hasn’t
checked in yet.”

I didn’t
join the conversation. I was in the kitchen for the sole purpose of getting
Briana a sandwich. She was never going to slim down if she kept eating like
this. I better not let her read this portion of my narrative. Scratch that. She
can’t have it both ways, always whining about getting back in shape and then
doing next to nothing that would help.

“Think
they’re okay?”

He
nodded. “Should be. It’s far from Salt Lake City and everything going on around
there.”

“Could
be something else,” pressed Steph. “They might have been hit by lightning,
maybe a forest fire.”

“We’ll
know soon enough. As long as it’s nothing bad, we should be talking again in a
little while. Probably just a normal breakdown, fuses maybe.”

We never
did regain communications, not from that location. The entire tower, one of
those extremely tall steel frame things with the blinking light up top to warn
away airplanes, had collapsed. Of the three people staying there, two were
found in the wreckage with crushed skulls. The third was gone, presumed dead
and reanimated. There was nothing to hint at sabotage or an attack, no strange
marks from an explosion, nothing at all. It appeared the metal simply buckled
and came crashing down.

*
* *

“Johnny!
Put that gun back in your room. No taking it out unless Jacob or Steph or
someone else is with you.”

“But
Briana…”

“Now
young man.” She backhanded my chest, hard, completely ignoring the dejected and
miserable look Johnny threw our way. “You never should have given him that for
his birthday.”

“Steph
has the clips for it, along with part of trigger assembly. He can’t shoot
anything. Besides, there were other adults heading him off. You didn’t have to
scream.”

“You
will not be giving Asher any weapons.”

“Until
he’s old enough,” I countered.

“Which
is going to be a lot closer to Mary’s age than Johnny’s.”

Personally,
I maintain that five is the ideal age to start learning and probably eight to
be carrying regularly, maybe ten. Our current circumstances don’t allow for
long, drawn out childhoods. The little ones need to learn to fight, to defend
themselves and others, to know about the realities of the world and all the
dangers we face. Sucks, doesn’t it?

“Lizzy’s
on the way back!” shouted Mary. She was on watch atop the castle wall. “She
just called in and should be here in a few minutes. She said she’s bringing
more people than we thought.”

“How
many?” asked Steph. She was in the courtyard with several of the children,
playing Frisbee. “Do I need to make an extra big dinner tonight?”

“I don’t
know.” Mary lifted the radio to her ear. “Hey Lizzy, how many is more than we
thought?”

People
were quickly gathering around. Lizzy had been gone for two weeks, and there’d
been no communications for the last six days. Granted, she said she would be
quiet for a while, but it was still worrisome.

“Really?
You’re not fibbing, are you? That many?”

“Damn it
Mary!” called Briana. “Just tell us already.”

“Lizzy
said she has over three hundred, mostly kids but also lots of women, a bunch of
them pregnant. They have buses to help carry everyone.”

“Three
hundred…” I looked at Briana. That was more than we expected, way, way more.

“Oh,
Lizzy also says that they saw a zombie on the highway in the forest. Dale shot
it in the head so no worries.”

Interlude – Lizzy’s Story

While
Lizzy didn’t complain about her assignment and left for the fire station right
away, I got the distinct impression she wanted to linger a while longer so she
could be near Asher. Aside from him being the most perfect baby in the long
history of our planet, he was also adorable and the only newborn at the castle.
Her emotions were perfectly understandable.

As
previously stated, I sent the twins with her – they rode in the back seat of
Lizzy’s Jeep Grand Cherokee – and taking a pickup were Tony and Harvey.
Additionally, I had them load up on fresh water. This had been drawn from one
of our wells, strained through cloth to get rid of any dirt or bugs, and stored
in reusable containers. And, of course, there was plenty of food in case they
were delayed, mostly canned beans but also some smoked beef that should keep and
salted pork which would likely never go bad.

They
reached their destination on the first day, about what we expected. We were
familiar with the route, and it had already been cleared of any major wrecks or
obstacles. Once there, things grew more complicated. Bet you didn’t see that
coming, did you? Impossible. Our lives are always improving. There’s no
unforeseen wrench messing up the gears. It just doesn’t happen.

*
* *

“What
the fuck do you mean the raiders are in Wyoming?”

“Where?”
asked Tara.

“Should
we shoot them?” added her brother.

“They’re
nowhere near us,” explained the woman. Her name was Jenny, and she had recently
been rotated to the fire station from one of the ranches. “But some of them
have been seen down in the southwestern corner of the state. There weren’t any
big groups, just twos or threes, mostly on dirt bikes.”

“Damn
spies. They’re scouting the area.” Lizzy stomped about the room before giving
the dusty fire engine a good, solid kick. “After they finish with Salt Lake
City, they’re going to go straight for us. You rather. They have to go through
you before they reach us.”

“I don’t
like the way things have been going,” said Harvey. “A motorcycle gang shouldn’t
be doing this much damage. There are supposed to be a whole lot of people down
in Salt Lake City, and we know there’s a bunch on the ranches too.”

“But the
ranches are all spread out,” countered Tony, “so you have little groups that
can’t even get to one another quickly. I agree on Utah – that’s some fifty
thousand, mostly in one place – but you can’t compare it to Wyoming.”

“I
wasn’t comparing it,” retorted Harvey. “I was making a point.”

“You
can’t look at the numbers by themselves,” said Jenny. “Some of our police
officers went over that earlier. Most of the folk in Salt Lake City are regular
people, and there are lots of children. The raiders who are attacking them are
almost all men, with only a few women who are every bit as mean.”

“I don’t
like any bitches who are crazier than me,” declared Lizzy. She paused. “That
came out wrong. What else can you tell us? Get in touch with Salt Lake yet?”

“Nothing
with them. We sent some people that way to try to talk face to face. I haven’t
heard anything back yet. And we had to evacuate one of the ranches.”

“The
bikers attack it?”

“No...
Tony, right?”

“That’s
right.”

Jenny
nodded to herself, trying to lock all the new names into her head. “It wasn’t
attacked, but their scouts found it. We decided it was best to just move
everyone. They were sent to one of the other small ones to boost the numbers
there. We even moved all the equipment and most of the livestock. There are
some people nearby watching it in case they do try to attack. By the way, don’t
say this on the big radios. We’re trying to limit their use since we think the
prophet’s men are listening. The little, short range ones are still good as far
as I know.”

“One
thing after another,” mumbled Lizzy.

“About
that…” She shifted, growing uncomfortable. “We’re going to have more people
coming here in the next few days than we thought. Please tell me, us, that you
can take them.”

Lizzy’s
eyes narrowed. “How many more? You never gave us a number to start with, just
said a few dozen. We figured sixty or so.”

“Before
those monsters showed up in Wyoming it was just a few dozen. Everyone is scared
now, and since you are as far away from the raiders as you can get, well…”

“We are
way off to the side,” agreed Harvey.

“A
couple days drive if you know the way,” pointed out Tony. “Miles yes, but it’s
not that hard to reach us.”

“Then we
just make sure that none of the bastards get the chance,” snapped Lizzy. “So,
how many is this more?”

“I don’t
know exactly, but everyone is supposed to be here in eight days, maybe nine.”

“Nine!”

“There
were delays,” apologized Jenny. “It wasn’t on purpose. Honest.”

*
* *

“I’ll
let the others know,” said Harlan. “You being out of contact for a while
shouldn’t be an issue.”

“I don’t
like it,” admitted Lizzy. “Don’t even see the reason considering where we are
now, but they want total radio silence before the next stage actually starts.
You can expect us to reach our destination, which I won’t give or hint at,
without any prior warning. I fucking hate having to be sneaky.”

“Don’t
worry about it. I’ll tell Jacob and Briana.”

They
exchanged a few more words, and then Lizzy said her goodbyes before severing
the connection and turning back to Jenny.

“When
are they supposed to get here? Do you even know, or have they changed the
estimates again?”

“I can’t
say,” replied the other woman. “When Charles came by yesterday he said they
were gathering at the closest ranches, loading up on buses with their
belongings and stuff.”

“Buses?”
asked Tony.

“A bunch
are pregnant, and don’t forget the kids. It’s easier moving them on buses.
We’ve done it before. Some other people drive normal cars, and we move
materials and supplies inside delivery trucks.”

“This is
really bothering me.” Lizzy’s perpetually bad attitude was not improving.

“It is
more complicated than it should be,” agreed Jenny, “but you were with me when
Charles was here. It’s not like you didn’t already hear all this.”

“We’re
bored,” announced Tara.

“Go
outside then.” Lizzy was almost, but not quite, screaming. “Shoot a fucking
rabbit for dinner or something!”

*
* *

“I am so
not happy.”

“Me
either,” agreed Harvey.

“I’m
joining the misery bandwagon too,” offered Tony.

The
twins didn’t say anything. They just stared at the long line of vehicles
winding their way toward the fire station.

“That’s
not a few dozen,” continued Lizzy. “That’s not even an increase.”

“Oh, it’s
certainly an increase,” said Tony, “several times over.”

Jenny
was biting her lower lip. “I don’t know guys. They didn’t tell me any of this.
I can’t even guess what’s happening.”

Lizzy
rounded on her. “I’ll tell you what’s happening. They’re taking advantage of
our good nature and dumping a shitload of people on us. You better be thankful
that I’m a nice person.” She found she couldn’t take her eyes off the mass of
vehicles, most particularly the seven buses, all of them big travel coaches.
“Fuck!”

*
* *

Three
hundred people, all seeking sanctuary in Nebraska, proved themselves a nuisance
and made coordination and organization particularly difficult. However, much as
our news of the wolf was overshadowed by other developments, so were these
problems. The prophet had broadcast a message to the people of Wyoming. No one
knew where it originated from, exactly, but quite a few of the ranches picked
it up and sent reports to everyone else.

I don’t
have a transcript, just the notes that were provided, but the transmission was
essentially a warning that the righteous who had suffered the evils of the
world must join the raiders of their own accord. Failure to do so was to be
considered a traitor and enemy. As to the oppressors, the prophet was coming to
mete out justice.

It
doesn’t get freakier than this.

*
* *

“What
happened?”

Dale
twisted about in his seat. “A bus fell down.”

“What do
you mean it fell down?” Lizzy hit the brakes and grabbed the radio sitting
beside her. “Tony, Harvey, what’s going on? I heard a crash and saw some dirt
kick up in the mirror.”

“We saw
something too,” replied Tony. “I’m not sure what. We can’t really tell from our
position.”

Lizzy
was leading the caravan with Tony and Harvey taking up the rear. That seemed
the most sensible system since they were the only ones who knew the route. It
would also help ensure no one was accidently left behind.

“What
was that?” she called, getting out of the Jeep. The twins fell into step beside
her.

“An
accident.” The woman seemed to be in shock.

“Go sit
down before you fall over. You, over there, help her.”

“Zombie,”
said Dale, calmly.

Tara
lifted her rifle and took the shot. The thing was several hundred feet up the
road, but she nailed it in the head.

Someone
screamed, and others began to join in.

“Now,
everyone just calm down,” ordered Lizzy.

A girl
came running up. “The bridge broke!”

More and
more people were getting out of their vehicles, some milling around but most
talking or whispering to one another.

“Tony,
you still there?”

“We’re
here,” crackled his voice over the radio.

“Get
some people together and set a watch on the back. We won’t be moving for a
while, so kill any zombies you see.”

“What’s
going on Lizzy?”

“An
accident. I’m about to check it out.”

She
looked around and randomly selected several women who appeared less frightened
or confused than the rest. “I want you to keep a look out. Get up on top of the
buses and let us know if you see any zombies. Tara, you have the front. Most of
the time they’re on the roads, so with you here and Tony and Harvey in the back
we should be good. Dale, get yourself somewhere in the middle, up high too, so
you can see if anything is coming from the sides.”

“Always
something,” she muttered, under her breath, after waiting just long enough to
ensure her instructions were being followed.

*
* *

“We are
staying here tonight.”

Plenty
of scared faces turned her way.

“None of
that. Just make sure you take a piss and shit before the sun goes down. After
that you need to be staying in your cars or whatever with the doors locked.
Just be quiet. There’ll be armed watches so don’t worry that no one’s paying
attention. Come morning, we leave. It’s only a little further to the castle.”

“Can’t
we keep going?” asked an older man. He had his arms around a pair of little
ones.

“Not
unless you want to try driving there in the dark. That’s lots of fun, what with
no streetlights and several dirt roads we have to take. No, we’ve had enough
grief already.”

The
accident was a bad one. A bridge had indeed collapsed, dropping a bus at least
thirty feet. Six people had been killed, four women and two kids, both boys.
Twenty two more suffered real injuries, including several contusions, some
fractured ribs, a broken arm, a teenager who was impaled through the stomach –
it was believed he would die before the night was out – and another who was
unconscious, possibly in a coma.

However,
they had a nurse. Finally, after all this time, there was a medical
professional on hand. The woman, Yvonne, was tall, skinny, and dour. It was
possible that she was even less likely to crack a smile than Lizzy. She knew
her trade though and quickly set the broken bones and splinted them. She also
possessed a good supply of drugs, including morphine, which was doled out as
needed.

Tending
the injured had taken hours, as had unloading everything from the wrecked bus.
They even took its wheels, those they could reach with the thing lying on its
side. More time was spent moving the vehicles in the rear of the group back
down the road and then across some open fields in order to get around the
gaping hole in what had previously been a working highway. Adding to the delay
was the constant need to fight off zombies.

They
were close to Crawford, and, like most towns, it had quite a few of the dead in
residence. These heard the commotion – there was no way they could do otherwise
– and started tromping toward the refugees. Tara was good at dropping them, but
Lizzy had been forced to send Dale to assist her. Then she joined in as well.
Others were lined up all along the convoy and ordered to kill any shambler that
came close. This took away from the numbers available to deal with the injured.
And, while there were over three hundred people, a disproportionate number of children,
pregnant women, and those with prior medical issues who couldn’t help were
present.