"When the zombies came, all of a sudden I found myself being an emergency room doctor instead of a cardiac nurse. When Jody told me she thought she was pregnant, I panicked. The only thing I thought I was able to do was manage a heart attack, and as much as I wanted Martha to have one sometimes, no one did. I learned on the job, and I had you right there with me. I was both student and preceptor, and now, you get to be student and preceptor to someone else, because as you know, one set of hands is never enough."
"Yeah. I was thinking about that actually, and I wanted to ask if you think Erin would be a good second person. Kristen gets woozy at the sight of blood, but I think she'll get over it, and I can't think of anyone else that shows any interest in the medical stuff you and I do."
"I think Erin would be a fine person to ask. I think Jack's group will still be doing their normal shopping up here so keep an eye out for anyone there that looks like they're interested too.
"Trisha, I have a gift that I want to give you. Come on, let's go over to my house for a second." Trisha slid a piece of paper into the book to hold her place before she closed it.
We walked next door to the house and I stood in front of the bookshelf Trent made me for Christmas that was full of medical textbooks. "I can't take it with me. I love this shelf and I love this collection, but I can't take it to Ireland with me. It needs to be with the right person, and I can't think of anyone more right than you." Trisha gasped and wrapped her arms around my neck. I returned the hug. Trisha was more than just my second pair of hands, more than just my student. She was my friend. She was so good at the job, and I felt so comfortable working with her. I was going to miss our time working together; the jokes we made back and forth that would have only been funny to the two of us. She was a partner in the worst of situations and I was so grateful that I got to know her, more grateful than I could ever let her know. I knew that she could handle any situation that was thrown at her and that the group couldn't ask for anyone better.
Over the next few days, I could see this divide of the group was hard on everyone. I saw Lacey around Erin and their separation was obviously hard on both of them. I watched Trent around his parents and Tanya with her son, and the weight of the probability of never seeing them again was heavy on them all.
On the day we left, Tyreese opened the gate. Everyone who stayed behind stood on the wall and watched us go. I was crying when we turned the corner to get on our way. Goodbyes never felt very good at all.
The Escape Begins
Our first leg of the journey was to go through North Dakota, and Jim met us as we came up to his camp. I wanted to stop and check on Charlotte and the baby while we were in the area, and afterward Jim was going to go with us as we crossed his state. He knew what paths were clear since he did the majority of the runs, so we were more than grateful for the escort. He told us that he had some loose ends to tie up, but he would be right back.
I knocked on the door to Charlotte's home and was greeted by Rory. He took me to the nursery where Charlotte was feeding Adam. The baby was beautiful. Adam was a very healthy, bright-eyed boy who looked just like a miniature version of Rory. He ate like a pro, and was pretty good at letting his mom get some sleep. The nursery was absolutely lovely. She had painted a scene of horses running through a river as the sun set behind them on one wall, and it was very well done. The other walls were painted as though the sunset was lighting the entire room, and the fading together colors were lovely. The furniture that Trent built fit the rustic scene beautifully.
While I was looking at the baby, Rory left to double check the horses to make sure that they were set up right and would be safe traveling the length of the journey. He made a couple of minor adjustments and showed Trent what he did so when we stopped at night, he would know what to do to get them going again. Jim returned with two other guys to come with him so he wouldn't have to make the return trip solo. I said goodbye to Charlotte and Rory and rejoined the group. Once the other guys that Jim found mounted their horses, we were off.
The trip across North Dakota was quiet and beautifully boring. On the second day of our trip, one of Jim's guys shot a deer. We cooked it over a fire in several good sized steak chunks. That night we went ahead and ate until we were full, knowing that the meat wouldn’t last long before it went bad. We might as well enjoy it while it was there. The roads were just as clear as Jim said that they would be, and it was nice to have something actually go as planned. It only took us ten days to go across the state, and Jim's group was with us the entire time. We parted ways in Fargo, and I felt a little sad that we were losing part of our traveling pack. We invited them to travel the rest of the way before we left, and we extended the invitation again before we parted again. Jim said that the timing wasn't right, there were too many families that were split in half by the TB, and they weren't ready to further divide the camp. I understood where they were coming from. Trent told them that when he gets in touch with Jack, that he would make sure that they hear an update.
We wanted to keep the work load on the horses light so we weren't moving very fast. As often as we could, we walked alongside the wagons, but there were times that we were glad to just ride along. We stopped at as many water sources as possible to stretch out the water supply as far as we could and to let the horses rest. I thought that there would be more hunting opportunities than we were finding, but game was scarce. It was probably because we couldn't help but to make noise as we traveled, and although we brought food with us, it went fast with twelve people eating it. When we found a fruit tree we picked as much of it as we could.
We stumbled into a few pockets of zombies, but the majority of the trip so far was surprisingly light when it came to the dead. I wondered where the zombies were if they weren't here, but I wasn't about to complain about their lack of appearance. As far as the roads looked, we weren't even seeing the usual stack of cars in the middle of the road like in other areas. On this road, all of the cars were pushed over to the sides leaving the middle part open to travelers. After we were a little farther we found a street sign that proclaimed there was a National Guard Armory near where we were. I wondered if they were responsible for clearing the roads, or if it was people like us that moved the cars away like we did when we were driving to Idaho. I wondered if whoever did the clearing was safe wherever they went.
After we found the sign, my brain began to wander, and I thought about the many people that were in the military when this all started. Many of the troops had returned from their tours in the Middle East, but there were still a lot of them that were deployed. I felt a wave of sadness for the guys that were gone, as I couldn't help but to imagine them sitting by a radio as they heard the news about what was happening back home. I could almost feel that anxiety over being completely unable to do anything in that situation, knowing that their wives, husbands, parents, and children were at home facing worse monsters than the Taliban while they were trapped in the desert. I wondered about all the guys that were finally home with their spouses after being gone for years only to be recalled when the world crashed around us. I wondered if any of them refused to go back to work, opting to fight the zombies from home, and I wondered what drove the ones that did go back to make that decision.
If it was the military that cleared this road, I hoped that they were alright now. I hoped that there were a bunch of bases that had a thriving community of people. I thought of the bases I knew about. They were like little towns with fences around them, some even had hospitals and stores, not to mention the many guns that they would have had. It could be a good, safe place to start over again.
We knew that the reality of a cross-country trip via wagon train was going to take longer in real life than we penciled it out to be on paper. On paper, this leg of the trip should only take six days, but we were only about two thirds of the way through the state of Minnesota after a week and a half had passed. It suddenly made a lot more sense that the wagon trains from the old days that were making this same trip in the other direction had so many problems. When I learned about those pioneers in school, it didn't make sense that they were having such a hard time. By the numbers, the trip should be quick. I always thought that they must have done something wrong like planning the trip poorly. This was not that easy after all, and we even had paved, level roads. I assumed they didn't think the weather through, and that was the problem with their food issues. I thought that by scheduling our trip for the Spring was going to make this trip an easy one. I thought that there would be plenty of food just running around for us to kill or pick, but there just wasn't. I was grateful that we had some stuff with us and even more thankful that Rory added a trailer full of feed for the horses. I had visions of coming across a few stables where hay and grain would be sitting there waiting to be fed to our noble steeds, and so far, that only happened once. They grazed on the grasses that grew wherever we stopped, and seemed to be doing well, so I reminded myself that things could be worse.
When we came close to Duluth, the roads grew more congested. I saw signs that there was an Air Force base there. I thought about how I wondered if the bases were doing well, and I realized that I wasn't going to be the only person who thought of that idea. It looked like every car in a ten mile radius had turned up at the gate with the hope that the base would allow them to come in and be safe in their walls. It was here, in Duluth, that the largest group of zombies that I had seen since starting this trip was gathered. The sound of the hoof beats carried in the silence did not go unnoticed by the herd of zombies in front of us. The only chance we had to lose them was to be faster than them, so we kept moving as fast as we were able.
The horses were intelligent animals. They recognized the dangers that other animals like snakes may pose, and zombies were certainly not exceptions to the rule. I was sitting alongside Trent talking to him as he drove the wagon and watched the horses as they became more anxious about the swarm of the dead that was gathering in front of us. Rory had trained the horses well, because they didn't panic and run, but they were close to the edge of their panic based on how wide their eyes were. When Trent pulled on the reins and steered them off of the road and into the empty field, they followed his lead. We had no idea if we were going to be able to go around the town this way, but we couldn't go forward. We traveled on side roads, trying to keep on going east when we could. I reminded myself that it was hard to get truly lost in this day and age as long as we were still on roads.
After several hours we were able to circle back on the right road again. It took a lot longer than we had intended, but at least we found a way to get back on track. In this segment, we were going to pass through the top part of Wisconsin and into Minnesota. When we were well away from Duluth and into a quiet area outside of Ashland, we saw the signs that said we had entered a wildlife refuge, so we set up camp to call it a night. We chose a spot next to the water, and hoped for just a minuscule break. The horses were still skittish after seeing the large amount of zombies, and to be honest, I was too. It felt so vulnerable being out in the world with no walls. The wagons we designed were nice in that regard. The walls of the shed weren't a lot, and a couple of motivated zombies would be able to break in, but at least we weren't sitting totally exposed. The sheds also helped keep the body heat of the people inside a smaller area so we felt warmer. We planned this trip for Spring to avoid the snow, but Spring wasn't always about the nice temperatures. Sometimes, a random weather system would find its way through.
That night I woke to the sound of rain thundering around the shed in angry thuds. At first I wondered if it was something trying to break in, which scared me because that was what I was dreaming about, zombie fists opening our makeshift home like a tin can, but once I had a chance to orient myself, I calmed down. I thought immediately about the horses that were tied outside next to the supply wagon. I woke up Trent and we both quickly threw on our shoes and went outside. DaWayne and Lucas were already up and they were fighting to put up a tarp to shelter our horses from the icy rain water that was pelting us with sharp stings. I grabbed a free corner of the tarp and Trent grabbed the other. I looked around my feet to see if there was anything that I could use to attach the tarp to and discovered a chunk of bungee cord that had been folded inside the tarp for just this reason. I grabbed the coil and threaded an end of the rope through the eyelet and tied it on. I loosened the wound up part and threw the whole chunk over a nearby tree branch to create a roof. Trent grabbed the end that hit the ground, looped it around the tree once, then tied his corner up. By the time we were done, DaWayne and Lucas had their side connected to the supply wagon, which was just a little lower than the end that Trent and I worked on, creating a nice slope for the water to drain off. Once the horses were out of the rain, we grabbed the blankets from the horse trailer and draped them over the very cold, shivering horses. As soon as they were safe from the storm and the adrenalin that was rushing through my veins settled down, I realized that I too was shivering from the cold, as were the others. We found another tarp and put it up between Lucas' trailer and Matt's to make a common area where we were able to start a small fire. Once it was going strong, we went back into our trailers and changed into dry clothes. While I changed, it dawned on me that we couldn't go anywhere while this storm was active.
I started a checklist in my head of what needed to be done and, when I emerged from the trailer, I was surprised to see that Drew and Liam were already with the horses, brushing them and feeding them, Abigail was trying to help Lacey make something to eat. We had various cans of stuff around, but we wanted to supplement our canned goods as much as possible. With everything under control at the campsite, Trent and I went one direction to hunt and Matt and Lucas went the other. DaWayne stood watch over the camp, making sure that our home stayed free of intruders, dead or alive.
Pickings were slim in the hunting department, which was a major disappointment. I asked Trent if there was supposed to be wildlife in a wildlife refuge, and he responded with a gruff chuckle. I hit a gopher that Trent was able to scare out of hiding, but that was all we found. Matt got a couple of squirrels, but that was all we had for meat.
The storm lasted for three days. When we finally had a break in the weather, we took off. There was no way of knowing if we would get very far before the rains started again, but some distance was better than none.
We had over four-hundred miles to travel on this leg of the journey, and we were already three days behind schedule. We were plodding down a long stretch of abandoned highway, when we stumbled onto Ashland and actually saw how busy this town was. After considering how much these lake states probably had busy coastal towns, we recalculated our route to avoid as much of that as possible. I really missed the Internet as we traced our finger over the roads on the map to figure out where we needed to be. In the before days, we could have typed a couple cities into a list and we could have found several route options, complete with road hazard warnings.
We trudged on through another one of those tiny, modern-day ghost towns very carefully. It was just a blip of a place, maybe twice the size of Wilsall, but it did have a couple of amenities. There was a hotel that still used keys instead of one of those key card things. Not too far from the hotel, we found a barn. All of the gates to the barn were open, as were the barn doors. Whatever animal lived here before was gone now, so we led our horses in. We pulled down some hay from the loft for them to eat while we scavenged. We passed a boarded up grocery store. There was a piece of wood that fell away from a window so we peeked inside and discovered the store still had some loose cans inside. We slipped inside and quickly swept through the store and grabbed what we could. We found cans of stew and I did a dance of joy as my mouth started watering. Real meat sounded like a treasure.