Surviving The Zombie Apocalypse (Book 2): Conflict (25 page)

The only
downside with leaving early the next morning, following my late night
conversation with Briana, was being unable to celebrate Mary’s birthday. She
turned fourteen that day. Hurray for her! It was a pity we couldn’t have a
proper party, even if it was only a private affair. With so many people now
present, using birthdays as an excuse to celebrate was over. After all, we had
one nearly every day. Still, we were determined to do something sweet for Mary,
so she was promised first looting rights for the entirety of this trip, even if
it meant we had to go out of our way to search particular homes or shops.

I
realize that isn’t as nice as thought out, heartfelt gifts, but we really
didn’t have anything to give her. We’d been discussing the matter for weeks,
and neither Briana nor I had the faintest idea of what to get. Mary is hard to
shop for. Movies and music aren’t any good. We already had pretty much
everything she liked. Toys and games like Johnny received wouldn’t work either.
That only left unique, personal items, and none of us, including Lizzy, were
confident we could pick the right thing.

As it
was, the fourteen year old – they grow up so fast – was delighted with the
ability to get first dibs on anything and everything we came across. There was
a good chance she’d be claiming all the chocolate, and probably no shortage of
trendy and generally useless clothing, but it was a small price to pay.

*
* *

“I want
to drive.”

“Maybe
later.”

“Please
Jacob.”

“I don’t
think so. You can navigate instead.”

Mary
shot me one of her more elaborate pouty looks. I think she’d been practicing.

“Or you
can radio Lizzy and let her take the lead.”

“No,
I’ll do it. Lizzy would steer us off a cliff or crash when she tried to look at
the map while driving.”

She
opened the road atlas, placing it on her lap. The action reminded me of Briana.
She used to do the same thing. You know, it was strange not traveling with her.
We’d bonded early in the disaster, and she’d been at my side almost
continuously, until she became pregnant. Then, following that momentous event,
we started spending more and more time apart. It seemed very wrong, but it
wasn’t like I was at some bar drinking or hiding myself away in the basement. I
was doing important work, trying to keep us all alive. Still… Ah, I should do
something real nice for her later to make up for my prolonged absences.

“How far
are we going on US-385?”

“All the
way to Custer,” I replied. “That’s our starting point. It’s a big tourist town.
Little town I mean, but based pretty much one hundred percent on tourism.”

“Lots of
zombies then.”

“Probably,
but they might have wandered off by now. Anyway, since it happened last year at
the height of tourist season, the hotels and restaurants should have plenty of
canned food for us to take, probably boxed as well. I think it will mostly be
good. It doesn’t get too hot up there so less spoilage, but some of the things
may have burst from the cold.”

“Heat
expands. Cold shrinks. You didn’t pay attention in school.”

“Except
for water,” I corrected. “That expands when it’s frozen. Soups and cans with
lots of water in them, maybe even beans, could expand and break open if they
froze.”

“None of
ours did that last winter. I think you’re making this up. You’re too
pessimistic.”

“Not pessimistic.
I’m being realistic, and I am worried about feeding everyone. We have a whole
lot of food, trucks and trucks of it, but there are so many people now. I think
the number is probably going to go up too.”

“What?”
she asked. “Don’t you think they’ll ever go home?”

I
hesitated. “If the raiders are completely wiped out, yes, most of them would
leave, but I’m having some doubts.”

“See,
pessimism.”

“Maybe
Mary. I don’t know. If it gets worse, you know more will be coming our way or
sending their kids to us. If it drags on and on, they may not want to go home.
Couldn’t really blame them either.”

“If more
do want to come, are you going to let them?”

I
nodded. “As long as they follow the rules and behave, I can’t tell them no.”

“Sure
you could.” She laughed. “It’s easy. Lizzy tells Conrad no all the time.”

“He
still bugging her?”

Mary
leaned in, conspiratorially. “Oh, yeah. At least twice after Asher was born,
but not as much now that there are more people around. He’s still flirting
though, on and off. I don’t think he can take the idea that a woman doesn’t
want him, especially now that there are so few eligible bachelors around.”

“He’s
really not grasping the concept of sexual orientation, is he?”

“Not
that I can see.” She slumped down in her seat. “Maybe he thinks it’s more of a
challenge.”

“Is he
flirting with any of the newcomers?”

“Yeah!
Big time.”

“Does he
have any preferences?”

Mary
frowned. “Like blondes?”

“As in
fat.”

She
began to giggle. “I didn’t think about that, but… Ooh, he has a thing for soft
and bouncy.”

“I
wouldn’t call Lizzy soft or bouncy. She might toss you down a well.”

“I have
to tell her about this. Maybe she’ll go on a diet so he stops bothering her.”

“Mary,”
I began, in all seriousness, “if the zombie apocalypse couldn’t get Lizzy to
slim down, between the difficulty with finding food early on and the fact that
the better shape you’re in the more likely you can run away, then a regular guy
sure isn’t going to do it.”

“Probably.”
She picked up her handheld radio. “But I’m still telling her.”

*
* *

“What’s
our plan?”

We were
camped off the road, at the outer edge of the Black Hills, very close to
Custer. Travel had been good, although it was getting harder and harder to
scavenge gasoline from the wrecked and abandoned cars we found. In some cases
the vehicles had corroded, resulting in cracks that allowed the fluid to
evaporate or leak out. Other times, the gas looked funny, cloudy or with large
particles floating about. We might have been able to strain it, but I preferred
to avoid anything that didn’t appear normal.

“We’ll
skirt Custer and head for Crazy Horse. It’s just a few miles north,” I replied.
“We’ll use that as our starting point to explore the area. Easy access to the
roads, and it should be clearer and safer than the town. We can go up top if
anyone wants to, get a good look around.”

“How
much looting are we going to be doing?” continued Lizzy. “Scrap that. How much
checking for future looting possibilities are we doing? We don’t have room for
lots of stuff now.”

“I say
some quick checks to make sure there’s stuff to take,” suggested Mary. “That
way we know where to start when everyone moves up here later.”

“If we
decide to,” said Lizzy.

“We
will. It’s pretty here, much nicer than Nebraska.”

“What do
you two think?” I asked.

Tara and
Dale looked at each other.

“The
hills are big,” she said.

“Lots of
trees,” he added.

That was
helpful.

“I want
to snag some maps in Custer too. The tourist shops are bound to have plenty.
Maybe we can find a visitor center or something like it. The best would show
the entire area with the roads and trails marked. That’ll give us a place to
start.”

“I don’t
want to be hiking all over the fucking place,” stated Lizzy.

“It’ll
be good for you,” countered Mary, poking her friend in the belly with one
slender finger. “You’re too fat, and if you don’t do something about that, men
will never leave you alone.”

I smiled,
the twins’ blank expressions did not change, and Lizzy began to glower. Mary,
true to her word, had been quick to let Lizzy in on the new revelations
concerning Conrad’s probable motivations. Judging from the enjoyment she got
teasing the older woman, this was likely to remain a common topic of discussion
for weeks to come, possibly months.

“Got to
hike Lizzy. We want a spot that’s not on the roads, not even with a dirt
service road leading to it like we have with the castle. The best thing would
be an isolated valley you could reach with four wheel drive, but nothing more.
I don’t want to be moving everything by hand, but at the same time I don’t want
something that might entice others to drive up and take a look.”

“We can
hide paths,” offered Tara.

“Easy,”
confirmed her brother.

“We do
want to hide,” I agreed. “We just have to find the ideal spot first.”

*
* *

I’m not
going to go into detail about Custer. It did have zombies, with a large number
of these children, far more than we were used to seeing. That was probably due
to all the families being in the area the prior summer when the change struck.
I sometimes wonder how many little ones ran to their parents after the adults
reanimated. Toddlers, even four and five year olds, wouldn’t know what was
wrong. Most probably didn’t suspect a thing. Oh sure, the eyes get that hideous
gray film which covers them, and the zombie doesn’t talk and moves slowly and
unsteadily, but kids would still recognize these as family, as the people who
were supposed to take care of them. Rushing right into those grasping, clawing
hands would have been the natural response.

We did
stop at one jewelry store that specialized in Native American styles and
manufacture. Mary picked out a very nice turquoise bracelet with a heavy silver
band and large stones. She also took a Sioux bone necklace. This was the type
you would often see warriors wear in old movies, with long cylinder beads,
several rows of them, bound together by a strip of leather. It looked good on
her narrow throat and even matched the heavy denim she wore. Mary said this was
just the start of her birthday presents. More would be coming.

I also
filled a sack with jewelry, particularly gold and silver pieces, leaving the
watches and money clips behind. Yes, I know it is essentially worthless, not to
mention with three hundred million dead there was no shortage of such stuff to
be found within the United States, but I wanted to take some back for Johnny
and the other kids. They loved our treasure chest and would be thrilled to see
us adding to it. Sometimes the adults even made a game by taking a new piece of
loot, hiding it in the meadow, and then giving the children some clues before
sending them off to search.

Finding
a map was no problem. As predicted, there were no shortages. Most focused on
the primary roads and tourist sites, but we found several versions for hikers
that listed the trails, along with a geological survey map providing
topographical details. We could now sit down and see where the tallest hills
were, how steep they might be, how large the valleys were. It was great. I had
to spend nearly an hour teaching the others how to read it.

As to
scavenging in general, we did dart inside some food stores, both grocery and
specialty places catering to tourists. None appeared to have suffered any sort
of organized looting. There were items that had clearly been taken,
particularly beer and wine, but it seemed haphazard. Best guess was that early
survivors had retrieved what they wanted prior to leaving the area or getting
killed. Nothing seemed to have been touched in quite some time. Even the
animals hadn’t visited recently, other than the occasional rat. I should also
point out that the produce aisles had morphed into oversized mold factories.
Nasty.

There
were a few stops to check police vehicles we came across, and the twins
recovered several weapons. Quite a few had rusted from exposure, and the pair
carefully removed firing pins and other parts which might be useful later,
placing them in large manila envelopes labeled with a black marker.

*
* *

“How big
are these other towns?” asked Mary.

We were
sitting on the deck at the Crazy Horse visitor center. The partially completed
monument was clearly visible a short distance away.

“Tiny,
tiny, tiny. Most are super small and just have tourist shops and stuff, but I
haven’t been here in several years and hadn’t seen them all firsthand.”

“They
are small,” said Lizzy. “Have to be, looking at the map.”

“Think
there are people in any?”

“Don’t
know Mary,” I replied. “We’ll do a drive by of each. I’m not too worried about
other survivors being nearby, like at any of the farms in the region, but I do
want to know if any are in the Black Hills themselves.”

“No
signs of people,” said Dale.

“Not
yet, but we need to check carefully. Our whole hiding strategy won’t work if
there are others who know about us.”