“I have to see this thing,” I said as I tried to will the last bit of moisture out of the bottle. I was no lightweight when it came to beer, but recovering from a gunshot wound on a steady diet of canned food and water had my alcohol tolerance down to that of a 5 year old. My head was much lighter than it should have been, and I wouldn’t be surprised if I slurred a word or two.
“You will,” Matt again swept the land outside with the rifle. “Joe has it in the barn right now. He said he wanted to add some finishing touches to it before its road ready again.
“So Mark,” I crossed my arms behind my head, lying back and enjoying my slight buzz. “How did you get those bottles of liquid gold past my wardens?”
“Oh, that was easy,” he said with a mischievous smile. “They agreed that if you felt well enough to finish that beer, you are well enough to get up and start helping around here. Get some rest, you’re on watch tonight.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
A light snow had begun to fall as I took my place at the window. I was in the same room, but the change in scenery from the bed to the window made a world of difference to me. The moonlit fields glistened in the new fallen snow. The night was peaceful and still. The air even smelled clean. I was amazed at how accustomed I had become to the ever prevalent stench of death so quickly. I didn’t even mind the breeze blowing through the open window. The cold was actually refreshing.
I propped the old bolt action rifle between my legs. I was with Chris when he purchased the Mosin-Nagant from a pawn shop in downstate Illinois. I could not understand his fascination with the decades old weapon, until I fired it. It weighed more than any rifle I had ever fired, and kicked like a pissed off mule. But the accuracy and range silenced any doubts that I had.
Since then, Chris had added a scope and modified a tripod for it. I wasn’t sure if he made those changes before or after the need for everyone to become an expert marksman, but I was happy for them all the same. I was not looking forward to firing the weapon though. The kick was sure to make my shoulder unhappy again.
I had not seen any unwelcome visitors since I began my first watch. In fact, I had really seen nothing at all, which was a strange feeling to get used to. Even with the seclusion, the road just beyond the trees would normally be well travelled. Large tractor trailers would traverse the country roads, carrying farm equipment or animals, even foodstuffs on their way to market. The road, much like the rest of the world, was dead and silent.
The cold was starting to feel a little less refreshing.
My eyes were suddenly drawn to something in the distance. I propped the rifle up on the tripod and scanned the road, sweeping the weapon left to right. Shadowy figures walked in and out of sight beyond the leafless trees. There were only two of them that I could tell. I could not see their features, but their clumsy gait gave them away. They shuffled instead of walked, dragging their feet across the snowy ground. Their arms hung loosely to their sides, rocking back and forth as they shambled along.
I anxiously waited for them to pop out of the cover of the trees. I watched a clearing at the driveway entrance through the scope, anticipating my shot. I drew the bolt back as the first of the undead came into clear view. I slammed the bolt forward, locking a round into the firing chamber.
“Don’t shoot,” Chris said in a hushed tone as he crept into the room.
Hushed or not, he still scared the bejesus out of me.
“What the hell is it with you and Abby?!?” I whispered. “Are you two trying to scare me to death?”
“I was trying to stop you from firing off a loud rifle in the middle of the night,” he answered. “Startling you was just funny.”
“I can hit them from here. I had the shot until you bugged me,” I said slightly irritated.
“No doubt you could. If you miss with that rifle, you’d be lucky if anyone let you carry a slingshot,” he smirked. “At night without the lights, they just walk right past us. But you fart in a thunderstorm, and they’ll hear it and come running. Firing that gun would just ring a dinner bell for them.”
“I see. That’s an important tidbit of information. I wish someone would have passed it on to me sooner.” I locked the safety again.
“I planned on it at dinner. You never came down though.”
“I know,” I sighed. “I thought about it. But I’ve been up here so long I could almost forget what is happening. I know it’s selfish, but I wanted to hold on to the serenity for as long as I could.”
“I can understand that. If I was in your place, I would probably do the same. Abby filled me in on what happened to you guys. You deserved a break. So did she, but she’s too stubborn to take one. I told her to go take it easy, and she almost bit my head off,” he said looking out the window.
“Yup, sounds like her,” I laughed quietly.
“We missed you though. You still haven’t met everyone yet,” he said, raising a set of binoculars to his eyes. His face suddenly illuminated in a dark green light as he peered through the lenses. “There’s seven out there.”
“Hold on!” I exclaimed. “Are those night vision?!”
“Yup,” he said handing them to me. “Look out between the trees.”
I put the binoculars to my eyes and the landscape suddenly bathed in a greenish glow. It didn’t take long to find one of the zombies amongst the trees. It struggled to move, but its feet were held fast. The others were not far away from the first, all struggling against something. Two of them had fallen over, their arms and legs splayed out in different directions, held in place as if they were caught inside a giant spider’s web.
“Barbed wire?” I asked.
“Razor wire actually. We ran it through the trees by the road. There’s a bunch of it snaked through the fields too. Any living person can see it, but those things just seem to ignore it and walk right in.”
“Snare them so you can kill them easier. Smart.” I watched the things through the binoculars as they continued to entangle themselves further.
“Saves ammo too,” Chris smiled. “We can take a sledge hammer and finish the job in relative safety.”
“How do you get the bodies untangled?” I asked, trying to not sound as impressed as I actually was. I saw no need to stroke his ego.
“We don’t.” Chris took a seat at the edge of the bed I had spent so many days recovering in. “I don’t know why, but once we started leaving their corpses hanging, they almost seem to ignore this place. I mean if they see us they’ll come, but we’ve been able to let our guard down a little at night. For now anyway.”
“I don’t know if I would want to test that against a mass of them though.” I handed Chris the binoculars and secured the rifle, leaning it against the wall next to me.
“Me neither. That’s why I didn’t want you to shoot. We don’t know how many are within earshot, and I’d rather not find out if we don’t need to.”
“So, who is it I haven’t met?” I asked.
“Well, really Adam’s the only one you haven’t been introduced to. Rosa was a nurse at a hospital when everything started. She took care of Faith the first day.” Chris leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “She picked up Adam on the side of the road and they both ended up here.”
“I’m surprised I haven’t seen him yet,” I said.
“I’m not,” Chris replied. “He keeps to himself mostly. He does what we ask of him, but he doesn’t really go above and beyond. I don’t really trust him much, but I needed the extra hands. He hasn’t done anything other than bitch and moan about everything, so as long as he keeps working we leave him alone. I’m not going to arm him anytime soon, though.”
“I’ll meet him tomorrow,” I said. “I can’t stay up here forever, and I’m interested in what else you’ve done to the place.”
“You’re in for a shock,” Chris sighed. “It feels more like a cage than my house. You know, I didn’t mean to blow up earlier. I know we can’t stay here. I’ve spent the week barring my windows and doors, booby trapping my fields, and turning my home into a refugee camp. I guess I didn’t want to face the fact that our home is gone.”
“It’s okay, I understand. I don’t even know if my house is even there anymore.” I looked back out over the fields. The peaceful silence that I enjoyed earlier was gone. It just felt lonely. “The fires there were so intense, I doubt if anything was left standing. But we’re going to need a long term solution to be safe, and this just isn’t it.”
“I know. Why don’t we give it some thought and talk about it over breakfast.” He stood up and turned towards the door, and stopped. “Oh, I brought you something. I thought you might want it back.”
He held out the duty belt I was wearing when I arrived. It had been cleaned of all the blood and crud that it had accumulated during our trip. The high gloss of the black belt picked up the moonlight as the weight of the holstered Glock swung back and forth in Chris’ hand like a pendulum. The only thing missing was the baton that would normally hang from the silvery double loop on its left side.
I was repulsed by the sight of it.
“You know,” I started after a long pause. “I’ll take the holster and the magazine pouches. But I don’t want the rest of it. Too many bad memories attached to that thing. It’s too heavy anyway.”
“Yeah, I thought you might say that,” he said. “There’s a belt you can use in the closet.”
“Thanks for the clothes by the way. The jeans fit and the boots are a nice change, but a flannel shirt?” I said pinching a sleeve of the red and black cloth for effect.
“You’re in farm country. What else did you think I would find around here. You could have ended up in coveralls,” he smirked.
“I’m surprised I didn’t,” I replied.
“The thought was there. You’re lucky Jake didn’t own any or you would be wearing them.”
“Oh, you got these from Jake? How is…”
“Gone,” Chris sharply interrupted. His hushed voice saddened as he spoke. “He’s gone, and so is his daughter.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, me too.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
My eyes were barely open before I detected the smell of coffee, and more importantly, bacon. My mouth instantly watered as the smell of the savory, salty goodness wafted into my room. The sizzle of the wondrous strips of meat coming up from the kitchen lulled my brain into a near hypnotic state. I wanted to be a cartoon so that my nose would guide me, floating down the stairs to the source of that delicious odor.
I, umm, love bacon. In case you were wondering.
Abby’s warm embrace enveloped me under our soft comforter. She decided to take watch at the same time as I did so that we could finally sleep in the same bed again. She had climbed into bed with me seconds after Chris had relieved me from watch. He chose a window in a different room to give us some privacy. We didn’t need it though. We were asleep before the door was closed.
It was the most comfortable I had been for what seemed ages. Abby’s arm rested across my chest, her head lying on my right shoulder. Her breath warmed my neck as she slept. I could have stayed there all morning, relaxing and enjoying our time together.
But there was bacon. Now I’m not saying I love bacon more than my wife. What I am saying however is that if zombies were made of bacon, I would only need a couple of fried eggs and a gallon of coffee, and the problem would basically solve itself.
I quietly untangled myself from my wife, extracting myself from the warm comforter without waking her. I threw on the red and black flannel shirt, and pulled on the dark blue jeans Chris had brought me. Opening the closet, I took the black leather belt he had offered up and strapped the heavy Glock to my side. I laced my new tan work boots on before tiptoeing my way out the door towards the bacon…I mean kitchen.
I crept down the hardwood steps to avoid waking anyone up, but the heavy boots and creaking wood made stealth impossible. As I hit the bottom step, Joe appeared seemingly out of nowhere. He was clean shaven, wearing black jeans and a black t-shirt. Even his hair was clean. It appeared that even a zombie apocalypse wouldn’t keep him from cleaning up for his new girlfriend.
“Hey Dan!” he said happily. “It’s good to see you walking around again. How’s the shoulder?”
“It aches, but it’s better than it was. Hey man, thank you for everything you did for me. I doubt I would be here if you didn’t make that run.”
“Don’t mention it,” he said, happily patting me on my shoulder. By patting, I mean it was more like slamming meat hammers against a part of my body that was still in the early stages of healing.
“Oops! Sorry ‘bout that,” he said smiling.
“No worries,” I replied through clenched teeth. The pain, although not as bad as before, was still enough to almost make me lose my appetite. Had breakfast not included bacon, I might have just skipped it entirely.
“We have to look out for each other,” he continued. “You’d do the same for me. Now go grab some breakfast before Rosa eats it all.”
“I heard that!” Rosa called from the kitchen.
“I love you!” he called back as he passed me on his way up the stairs.
“Uh-huh,” she answered.
I hit the bottom of the stairs and turned into the kitchen, rubbing my newly tenderized shoulder. It looked like only Joe and Mark were missing from the group. Rosa and Anna were busy at the stove scrambling eggs. Chris stood nearby, pouring a cup of coffee from an old stovetop percolator. Katie, Jane, and Faith all sat together on one side of the large oak table, shoveling in mouthfuls of eggs. Matt and Lexi sat across from each other, chatting about whether Alien or Aliens was the better movie (It’s Aliens by the way).
Another man I had yet to meet sat next to Matt, his eyes locked on his plate of half eaten eggs. His blond unkempt hair gave me the impression that he had just woken up himself. He looked younger than I had imagined. If not for the peach fuzz beard covering his baby face, I would have thought he was still in his early teens. He sipped his coffee without raising his head. He immediately struck me as someone who would rather be anywhere but where he was.
Chris had not exaggerated when he said the house was a cage. Every window was covered with a rebar mesh, welded together and held in place with heavy bolts. Every window that did not have shades or curtains were shuttered or boarded up. Heavy wooden planks barred the doors leading to the outside, held up with heavy iron brackets.
Firewood was piled high along the walls wherever there was room. A fire in the living room fireplace crackled away as the sweet smell of campfire filled the house. Boxes of canned food and bottled water were stacked along counters and tabletops. Backpacks were stuffed to near overflowing, placed near both the front and back doors. I would find out later they were what Chris called “Oh Shit!” bags, because that’s what you said just before grabbing one on the way out the door to run for your life.
“Hey, it’s Batman!” Lexi excitedly announced.
“Shh. This is my secret identity!” I answered.
“Dude!” Matt grinned. “Man it’s good to see you out of that bed. I won the bet!”
“What bet?” I asked.
“We were betting when you would make your way down today. My bet was that we would see you as soon as you smelled breakfast,” he laughed.
“Daddy!” Katie leapt from her chair and did her best to hug tackle me. She was followed by her cousins, and even Jane joined in on the hug-a-thon. If I had not been so close to the wall, they would have knocked me down for sure.
“Okay girls. Go finish your breakfast and let him eat,” Anna chimed in. “How do you want your eggs, Dan?”
“Edible,” I replied.
“Too bad you didn’t come down a few minutes ago,” Chris said before sipping his coffee. “We just ran out of bacon.”
I narrowed my eyes as I glared at my brother. “Don’t toy with me. I have a gun.”
“Ignore him,” Rosa said. “There’s plenty more.”
“I see why Joe likes you so much,” I said taking a seat across from Adam.
“We haven’t properly met yet,” I said, offering up a handshake. “I’m Dan, you must be Adam.”
“Yeah,” He said, ignoring my gesture.
“Okay then,” I said pulling my hand away. Adam simply grunted and continued to eat.
“So Chris, I see you’ve been out scavenging,” I said as a steaming pile of bacon and eggs were set in front of me. I chewed slowly, savoring the crisp salty goodness of mankind’s greatest accomplishment. Bacon. The eggs were light and fluffy, practically melting in my mouth. The percolated coffee was hot and delicious, even the cream tasted fresh.
I could not remember the last time I had a better breakfast, and it must have showed.
“Do you want us to leave you alone so you can get better acquainted with your food?” Chris laughed.
“Don’t make the offer if you don’t mean it!” I laughed, shoveling up another forkful of eggs.
“Well, that’s a visual I didn’t want,” he said, shaking his head. “Yeah, we’ve been hitting every house and store nearby looking for survivors. We’ve been coming up short, so we’re taking what we need, but leaving some too, in case they come back.”
“That is unless we know for a fact they aren’t coming back,” Matt added.
“How many places were…” I looked over at the kids eating mere feet away. “empty?”
“Too many,” Rosa replied sadly. She pretended to scrub an imaginary spot on a pan.
“Not all of them,” Lexi interjected. “Some places look like people just got up and left. Probably trying to find someplace they thought was safe.”
“Wait! You’ve been out there too?!” I demanded. “She’s just a kid, what the hell was she doing out there?”
“I’m not a kid!” Lexi shot back.
“You’re fifteen. You shouldn’t be at risk like that.”
“Dan,” Chris chimed in. “It doesn’t matter if she’s fifteen or fifty, those things out there don’t care. Just being alive right now is a risk. If she’s going to survive, she’s going to have to learn to get by.”
“It doesn’t mean I have to like it,” I said slinking back into my chair as I finished the last of my coffee.
“I don’t like it much either,” Chris replied. “But it is what it is. Besides, give the girl some credit. She’s the one who found that bacon. And she’s a hell of a shot!”
“Is that so?” I said raising my eyebrow at Lexi.
“That’s right!” Lexi sat upright in her chair, crossing her arms and glaring as if daring me to argue the point.
“Calamity Jane over there almost pierced my ear with her shot. But she made her point, right between its eyes. In the dark no less.”
“Possums, huh?” I raised my eyebrow at Lexi again.
“Yeah,” she shrugged. “Possums, skunks, raccoons, coyotes, anything that got too close to the chickens.”
“Apparently any of the male species of the Foster clan, too. You’re starting to make a habit of shooting in our direction, young lady,” I said in a mockingly accusing tone.
“Well, if you Foster men would stay out of trouble, I wouldn’t have to shoot in your direction,” she teased.
Anna snorted from the other side of the kitchen. She had her hand over her mouth trying not to spit coffee across the room. Rosa didn’t have as much luck with her water. She ran to the sink, water spitting from her mouth as she laughed. Pretty soon, the whole kitchen was in stitches. Only Adam sat in silence.
“Well, that answers the bacon question. Abby told me all the animals were killed. Where did the eggs come from?” I asked Chris.
“Those things didn’t get them all. I still had my breeders in the upper part of the barn. The zeds never got up there. And every farmer in the area had their own flock. Those chickens have been running free since that horde came through. So I’ve been collecting a few egg layers here and there,” Chris answered.
“Zeds?” I questioned.
“Yeah. Zombie still sounds too make believe, you know? But we’ll talk about that later. I’ve got something I’ve been saving just for you. Work that just screams your name.”
“Thanks,” I said sarcastically. “I’m glad you were thinking about me.”
“It’s about time,” I heard Adam under his breath.
“I’m sorry, did you say something?” I asked.
Adam lifted his head, glaring at me from across the table. He was gritting his teeth, his jaw muscles locked tight as his narrowed eyes locked on mine. What I had mistook as indifference towards me was in fact pure anger.
“I said,” he spat. “It’s about fucking time you got off your fucking lazy ass and stopped wasting our shit!”
“Adam, watch your mouth. There are kids right there, my daughter among them. They don’t need to hear your language. If you got something to say to me, fine. But you wait until my daughter is not in the room,” I said, forcing myself to be calm.
“Fuck your daughter!” he clenched his jaw, setting his eyes to mine.
Everyone in the kitchen stopped, holding their collective breaths. The silent tension in the room was palpable. The only thing that dared make a sound was the steady drum of a leaky faucet. The calm and happy breakfast time we were enjoying had evaporated in the seconds it took for the words to fall from Adam’s tongue.
“Anna,” I said through my own clenched teeth. “Can you please bring the kids upstairs for awhile? Adam and I have a few things to discuss.”
Chris moved closer to the table as Anna shuffled the kids upstairs. Lexi froze in her seat, her face looking as if she was trying to decide if she should stay where she was at or run away. Matt rose, looking like he was ready to pound Adam into the ground. Chris put his hand on Matt’s shoulder, guiding him away before he intervened. Rosa stayed where she was, watching the scene from the other side of the kitchen.
“Now,” I said when I was sure the kids couldn’t hear. “You ever talk like that around any of those kids again, and I’ll tie sausages around your neck and march you into a horde of those
Zeds
! You have something to say to me, say it!”
“Fine!” he shouted. “Your punk ass shows up and brings a posse’ of those fucks right down on us! We hide in the basement like fucking rats while those things ate everything we needed! Then you stay in bed using up all our medicine, and eating all our food while we’re working our asses off trying to fix your mess!”
“It’s not like I brought them here on purpose! What exactly would you expect me to do!?” I shot back.
“Stay lost! Take them somewhere else!” Adam’s pale face reddened. Spittle shot from gritting teeth as he exhaled heavily.
“Maybe I should have, but I didn’t. I was being shot at, and the car was on its last leg. I almost died myself! How could I have led them anywhere else?!” I demanded.
“You should have died! We should have left your stupid ass in that car!” He stood and put his fists in the center of the table, leaning in close as his voice lowered to a near growl. “If you pull that shit again, I’ll let you die. And I’ll feed your ole lady and bitch kid to those zombies too.”
My fist connected with his elbow as I came off my chair after him. He tumbled forward towards the table. I helped him on his trip, slamming the side of his head down onto my plate hard enough to shatter it. My gun was in my hand and on his temple before I realized it. My finger was already squeezing the trigger.