“We’re almost at that point now,” I replied. “That’s why we need more horses. We’re going to need to go back to that golf course soon and round up a dozen or so.” I snapped my fingers. “You know what we’ve been neglecting? Bicycles.” I thought a moment before answering my own question. “We need to round up a dozen or so and spare parts too.”
“Maybe us women can all go out scavenging in the next day or so while you stay home and watch the kids.” I groaned inwardly. We’d had this conversation before. It always worried me, but I had to admit, Kelly had proven herself. Besides, if Sarah and Ruth went with them I had no worries. I nodded amicably and changed the subject.
“I’m going to run up to the Riggins house and check on things and then take Sammy home. I won’t be any longer than an hour or so.”
“Okay, sweetie. The laundry should be dry by the time you get back,” she said with a look. I acknowledged the hint with a grunt.
“Why don’t you go get the truck ready, Sammy?” Kelly said. “Zach will be out in a second.”
“What’s up?” I asked when Sammy shut the door.
“Shooter doesn’t want Sammy around and I think the two sisters feel like they’re being burdened with motherhood.”
“That’s stupid,” I retorted. “He’s a good kid.”
“Yeah, I agree. Kyra was kind of implying that maybe Sammy would be better off living here with us.”
“What do you think?” I asked.
“You’re a good father figure,” she responded with a small smile. “And besides, he’s an orphan, just like you.” I smiled back.
“Well, I’ve never considered myself a father figure.” In fact, I always thought someone like Fred was the epitome of a father figure. Rick too, to a lesser extent. Kelly kissed me on the cheek and squeezed my butt as I walked out.
We found Sarah, Rachel and Janet sitting at a picnic table in back of our old damaged home. There were two dead zombies at their feet.
“They followed us,” she said simply. I didn’t bother asking the circumstances; they were dead and nobody had been bitten, that’s all that mattered. One of them had a backpack on. I searched it and found a roll of toilet paper stored in a plastic Folgers coffee container and a small, rechargeable flashlight. I tossed them to Sarah.
“To the victor goes the spoils,” I said with a grin.
“What does that mean?” Sammy asked.
“It’s an expression used by a politician a long time ago. It basically means the winner gets the prize.”
“Oh.”
“I’ll explain it in more detail one day. In the meantime, let’s clean up Aunt Sarah’s mess.”
I instructed Sammy how to loop the rope around their ankles and tie it off on the bumper hooks of the truck. The four of us then slowly dragged the corpses over to the sinkhole. I pointed to a tarp covering stuff and held down by rocks.
“I keep a five gallon can of fuel here and some old tires. Once you get a couple of them burning, they’ll go for hours. Just dump the bodies on top of them and it’ll burn them to a crisp.” I instructed Sammy how to do it and he excitedly lit the pyre with his brand new Bic lighter. We talked as we watched them burn. He was standing close and I guided him backwards as I pointed toward the thick black smoke.
“Burning rubber releases a bunch of toxins, so don’t breathe any of the smoke.” Sammy looked up at me and nodded.
“I see a lot of darkened bones,” Sarah commented.
“Yeah, we’ve had a few unwanted visitors over the past couple of years. The first one was Susan Riggins, the woman who originally lived at the big house. The second one was Fred’s little brother, his name was Franklin.” Sarah looked at me questioningly.
“He’d gotten sick and turned. He killed Fred’s wife and mother-in-law before wandering off. He came up to the old homestead one night. Julie and I managed to kill him and drug him down here the next morning. A few days later, we met Fred. He wanted to give his baby brother a Christian burial. It was hell getting the remains out of there.”
“I remember Julie telling me about that,” Janet said and looked at me quizzically.
“Do you miss her?”
“Every day,” I replied evenly. I expected more, but she had nothing more to say on the matter. We watched the fire in silence for a few minutes.
“How’d it go with the house hunting?” I asked. Rachel shook her head.
“Busted water pipes, mold, mildew, dead bodies lying around. We couldn’t find one that suited us. But we found a bed for Janet. And besides…” She looked at Rachel.
“So, when are you going to move in with Sarah?” I asked Rachel. Sarah looked at me in surprise. Rachel piped up.
“Have you ever heard this one: what does a lesbian bring on her second date?” she asked. I looked at her and she was smiling mischievously. “A U-Haul, get it?” I laughed while Sarah looked embarrassed.
“Okay, I understand. Did you ever get the water tanks in the bus filled?”
“Somewhat,” Sarah responded. “But we’ve used so much I need to refill them again.”
“Which house did you live in, exactly?” Rachel asked.
“First it was the old homestead, and then we moved in to the Riggins’ house.” From the look on her face, I felt it necessary to explain.
“My boss, a man named Rick Sanders, lived in the old homestead. The Riggins lived in the new house. Back when it all started, I moved in with Rick and rode out the shit storm together. He died in his sleep on Christmas night of the first year. Then I started meeting other people, including Janet here and my kids’ mother.” I thought about Janet’s antics at that time and was about to tell them, but decided to hold off.
“At one point, some chuckleheads became displeased with us. They set Fred’s original house on fire and were about to do the same with the homestead. We were able to stop them before they did, but they’d poured a bunch of gas in it which had soaked into the floorboards and stuff.” My face darkened at the memory. “That’s when we moved into the Riggins. Once we moved in, we made a lot of modifications. We had a generator, well-water, a septic tank, a HAM radio tower, wood-burning stoves, most everything to make it self-sufficient.”
“Those concrete barricades are a nice touch.”
“Yeah, those and the barbed wire were for keeping the zombies out. It didn’t help against the Marines though.” I sighed. “It was a nice home, once.”
“What’s the square footage?” Sarah asked. It was an interesting question. I thought about it as I looked over the landscape, watching for any interlopers.
“I never measured it out. Let’s see, five bedrooms, three and a half bathrooms, den, kitchen, dining room, plus the basement. I’d guess around four thousand, give or take.”
“That’s a decent-sized house,” she mused. “Are the well and septic tank still working?” I nodded.
“As far as I know.”
“Have you ever thought about rebuilding it?”
“Many times,” I replied. “But I didn’t see any real need when it was just me and Kelly.” I saw where she was going. “I think Fred’s house is plenty for the two of us and the kids.”
“I think it would be safer as a whole if more of us lived together under one roof instead of being spread out,” Sarah opined. I looked at her.
“Like at the school.”
“Yeah, but I think I understand why you never moved in with them. Between the different personalities and Tonya’s abrasiveness, I could never live there.”
“Yeah,” I replied. I could never live with that group. “So, what are you thinking?”
“We should rebuild it, perhaps even make it larger. The old homestead would be easier to rebuild, but the square footage of the foundation is rather small, and the cellar couldn’t hold a great deal. You’re going to need more room.” I must have made a face or something.
“Think about it. You’ve got five of you living in Fred’s house currently. Rachel and I would like to stay close, so that’s seven people. There are likely to be new arrivals we’d be willing to bring into the fold, and you’re forgetting one very important thing.”
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Do you really think a brother and sister will want to share the same bedroom when they become teenagers? Especially with their grandmother? You’re kids aren’t going to be little forever.”
“You make a good point,” I conceded.
“I think it could work,” she said and then lowered her voice to almost a whisper.
“Plus, I think Sammy would be better off living with you and Kelly. You two make better parental figures.” I looked over at Sammy, who had circled around to the far side of the sinkhole and was looking around.
“He’s a good kid,” Janet said. I nodded in understanding. I got the distinct impression the women got together and hatched a plan to get me convinced Sammy would be better off under my roof. Hell, they didn’t need to go through the motions, I was already on board.
“I think you should seriously consider it,” Sarah said. “In the meantime, Rachel and I are going to stay in the bus.”
“Alright, you women have certainly been doing a lot of planning and conspiring. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.”
“Sarah thinks you have a cute butt too, but she likes mine better,” Rachel said and then giggled at her own joke. Now Sarah was plainly blushing. I rounded up Sammy and the five of us headed back.
I waited until dinner.
“Sam, I have a business proposition for you.”
“You do?” he asked, wide-eyed. I gestured toward Kelly and Janet.
“We’d like to offer you a job.”
“What kind of job?”
“I need an extra farmhand. It’ll be hard work and it will require you to live here full time. You’ll be fed and clothed, and I’ll personally see to it that your training continues.”
“What kind of work will I be doing?”
“Everything,” I answered plainly.
“Will you teach me to hunt?”
“Yep. I’m going to be teaching you many things, including how to hunt. What do you say, would this interest you?” He nodded his head up and down vigorously. Kelly, and even Janet, were grinning from ear to ear.
“It’s settled then. After dinner, we’re going to the school and give Aunt Kate and Aunt Kyra the news. I’m not sure they’ll want you to leave, but don’t worry. I’ll explain it to them.”
“Okay.”
“Then we’ll get all of your gear and set you up a living area in the den.”
“But, I don’t have any gear,” he lamented. I gave a somber nod.
“Well then, I think that’s the first thing we’re going to work on.”
“He has a grand total of two pairs of underwear,” Kelly said after we’d gone to bed. “And he didn’t know what dental floss was until I showed him.”
“Yeah, well, we’ll get him squared away in no time. I hope he doesn’t have any cavities.”
“So, what’s next?” she asked.
“We’ve got to get ready for the rendezvous.”
“And then what?”
“We’re going to need to move into a bigger house. Sarah suggested rebuilding the Riggins home. I think the idea has merit and with Tonya’s input we can build something bigger and stronger.”
“It sounds like a lot of work.”
“It will be. Our only alternative is to move into a preexisting structure that’s already hardened, to an extent. A parking garage is a good example, but the problem with that is we’d be too far away from the farm itself.”
“So, we rebuild then.” There was a long pause and then Kelly started giggling.
“What?”
“Maria said the other day she walked in on Jorge masturbating.”
“Ohh, T-M-I,” I exclaimed.
“I sure hope there’re some single women who show up,” I muttered after a minute, which caused Kelly to start giggling again.
“What do you think?” I asked Justin. The two of us were in one of the treehouses. Justin preferred to call them sniper towers, but Sammy called them treehouses and it stuck. Justin jumped up and down, testing the strength of the floor.
“Sturdy,” he commented.
“Yeah. It has a good field of fire as well. With the second one on the other side of the church, the shooters will have a good cross projection.”
“I wish we could have more than two,” Justin commented. I did too, but we didn’t have enough personnel to man them all day and attend to the rendezvous duties as well.
“Alright, Sammy. Explain why we built these.”
“They’re to protect our people during the rendezvous in case someone tries anything.” I nodded. I hoped for a more detailed explanation, but it’d have to do. Justin handed him a clipboard with paper and pencil.
“Alright, Private, draw me a range card,” he ordered. Sammy scrunched up his face anxiously. I fished into my cargo pants and came up with a compass.
“Start by shooting your azimuths,” I directed and the two of us guided him on how to create a proper range card. After we graded his finished product, the three of us walked back to the church.
“I’m proud of our work,” Justin said as we stared at them with our binoculars from the church parking lot. “They’re well-camouflaged, if I didn’t know they were there, I’d never spot them.” He glanced at me with a wry grin. “You’d make a decent Marine.”
“I’m not sure I’d be very good at following orders,” I quipped.
“Point taken,” he said with a sigh at my implication and went back to staring at the blinds.
“So, all that’s left is stocking them with food and water, and then assigning guard duty.”
“Yep.”
“I don’t think I can hardwire a landline to them due to the distance, but they’ll have portable radios. What else do you think we need to do?”
“The school gang is getting the church prepped,” I responded. “We’ll keep all bartering goods off sight until everyone has arrived, so in the meantime all we need to do is conduct multiple patrols to root out and destroy any nests of zombies that might be inclined to crash the party.” Justin nodded.
“I’ll handle that,” he said. “I hope you’ll join in as well.”
“I’m always up for killing zombies.” I lowered my voice. “Speaking of which…” I inclined my head toward one of the outhouses where Sammy currently was.
“Yeah, about that. On the one hand, he needs to get acclimated to this lifestyle, but still, he’s only ten.”
“Yeah,” I responded. “And no doubt the women will be up in arms if we include him. I don’t know, dude, I’m with you, we need to get him acclimated, but if he were to get hurt…” We were interrupted by the sound of a bicycle bell. I knew who it was before I even turned my head. Ward and Marc were peddling up on their tandem bike. I waved and motioned them toward us.
“Alright, guys, we have a question for you.” I quickly explained as Sammy rode the bike around the parking lot out of earshot.
“He’s awfully young, Zach,” Marc said.
“He hasn’t even reached puberty,” Ward enjoined.
“So, you two think it’s too soon.”
“Think about it, Zach. You’ve even admitted you have PTSD. What if he witnesses one of you getting attacked and killed, God forbid, he’d be devastated.” I looked at Justin, who shrugged.
“He’s already seen people get killed.”
“It’s like a boxer being punched,” Ward explained. “The more times he’s punched, the greater the likelihood of brain damage.”
“Okay, point taken. But, we can’t shelter him forever.”
“There’ll be plenty of time. Wait until he hits adolescence.”
“Like when his voice starts changing and he’s bragging about growing hair on his balls?” I asked facetiously.
“Exactly,” Ward replied with a big grin.
“Who has hairy balls?” Sammy asked as he peddled up.
“Alright, we need to go over a few things before the rendezvous,” Tonya proclaimed. We had all gathered for dinner at the school. They looked at her expectantly as everyone waited on Marc and Ward to finish cooking. She gestured toward me.
“Start us off, Zach.”
“First, we don’t have an overabundance of food, so everyone needs to help prevent waste.”
“We’re with you,” Rachel said.
“Okay, good. The only food items we’re going to trade for are items we have an abundance of; sweet corn, potatoes, and honey. Tonya and I will be in charge of all trading in that area. If anyone asks, refer them to us.” I then gestured at Sarah.
“Major Fowkes is coordinating security with Justin and Ruth. If they ask you to perform any type of duties, please help them out.”
“Janet and I will be handling the kids, right?” Rhonda asked.
“Yes, so you two will be exempt from guard duty.” Everyone seemed to be on the same page, which was the purpose of this meeting. Floyd tentatively raised a hand.
“Yes, sir?”
“Do you people expect any trouble?”
“It’s hard to say, Floyd. We’ve had trouble in the past with some unsavory folks, but we think the plan we have in place will deal with it if that happens.” There was a lot of murmuring.
“I bet all of you have been wondering if this is worth the risk. I won’t try to throw out a line of,” I glanced over at the kids, who were listening attentively, and changed my response. “I won’t make any false promises, but we believe it’ll work.”
“And if it doesn’t?” Gus pressed.
“We have contingency plans in place to deal with it,” Justin answered. “I seem to recall you bowing out when I asked for volunteers for a reactionary squad, are you wanting in now?”
“Oh, no. I’m sure you soldier boys and soldier girls have it covered.” Justin gave him a cold stare.
“Alright, moving on to legitimate matters. Tomorrow at zero-seven-hundred hours, we’ll be conducting the first of several search and destroy patrols. It’ll be yours truly and Zach leading it off. I’m taking volunteers of who wants to join in.” To my surprise, Kelly raised her hand.
“You want to kill zombies?” I asked. “I thought you hated killing them.” Kelly wouldn’t look at me. I glanced at Justin and shrugged.
“Okay,” Justin replied. “Kelly, Sarah, Rachel, Cutter, Shooter, Floyd, Sarah, Rachel, Jorge, Josue. That’ll work. I’ll see all of you right here in the morning.”
I waited until the two of us were snug in bed before talking about it.
“Why the turnaround?”
“What do you mean?”
“You’ve never liked killing anything, you know that’s what we’ll be doing on these patrols, right?”
“Yes, I know,” she said quietly. “It’s something I’ve got to get used to doing.”
“We might encounter unfriendly humans too,” I said in the same quiet voice. “You’ll be expected to pull your weight if things get hairy.”
“I know.” She turned and kissed me. “You’re being overly protective.”
“I can’t help it.”
“You know the attack the other night?”
“Yeah?”
“What if it happens again? And what if you’re not here, or maybe you’re injured? I need to do this. I need more confidence.”
“Something tells me you’ve been talking with Sarah and Rachel.”
“Well you keep going on and on about what a badass she is.” I sighed, knowing I wasn’t going to prevail in this discussion. I gave her a kiss and held her closely.