Don't Dare Call Them Zombies : Books 1-4 (31 page)

“Have your friend show this map to the church members,” the Captain said. “They have to evacuate. If a full meltdown takes place the radiation would kill them in days, or less.”

“I’ll make sure this gets to them as fast as possible,” I said. 

“So how bad is it?” Jennifer asked. “Has the whole country been wiped out by this outbreak?”

The Captain walked to a small stand on the side of the room, picked up a stack of printouts and handed them to me.

“Read for yourself,” he said. “Most of the country has been overrun, especially the cities.”

I thumbed through the documents and read bits and pieces of the text.

“Miami has been lost,” one memo read.

“Do not enter Atlanta for any reason,” another warned.

“The safe zone at location 23B has been breached,” another read.

I continued to read through the papers when I heard Jennifer ask another question.

“How did you get all these reports? We were told the buses were out of radio range. If you can't contact the buses, how are you getting this info?” she asked.

“The military's internet is still working,” he said, “but not the one for the general public.”

“We’re looking for my sister and his mother,” she said. “They were bused out of here already. Can you use the internet to find out which relocation center they were taken to?”

“It's possible, but it would take some time,” he said. “And we don't have much.”

“Is there anything we could do to buy some time?” I asked.

“What do you mean?” he responded.

“The nuclear power plants require fuel, right? That’s what they’re running out of. What if we could find them some?” I asked.

“From where?” he asked.

“There is fuel everywhere. There are thousands of broken down cars on the road. In fact, there could be tanker trucks on the road as well. There are gas stations that might still have some fuel remaining too,” I said.

“I don't have enough men to do that,” he said. “I'm already spread out thin. I sent some of my soldiers ahead with the survivors we bused out.”

“Alright,” I said. “But don't you think it’s something worth trying? Maybe you could get some civilian volunteers?”

“My orders are to protect the civilians and not put them in danger,” he said. “I'm afraid you need to leave now, and get those church folks here by morning or they will be left behind.”

“Thanks for all of the information,” I said. “We will do our best to get them here.”

With the cup of coffee and the papers in my hand, I walked out of the room with Jennifer. We were escorted out of the building, and started walking back to Ms. Suzy's tent. On the way there I realized I hadn’t even read the letter from my mother.

“Talk with Ms. Suzy and find out what she has decided,” I told Jennifer. “I need to have a moment to read the note from my mother.”

“What if she won't come with us?” Jennifer asked.

“Persuade her,” I said.

As Jennifer was trying to convince Ms. Suzy and her daughter to join our group, I walked to the corner of the tent and pulled the note out of my pocket. I tried to ignore their discussion as I read it.

Dear Hank,

I hope you manage to reach the relocation center and get this letter. I have asked Ms. Suzy to give it to you if she’s able to meet you. I'm so sorry, but the soldiers are saying that I have to be transported to another site in a few hours. I asked if I could wait and go on another bus, but they said I had no choice. I asked them where they were taking me, but they wouldn’t say anything. Somehow, I hope you are able to find me, but please don’t feel bad if you can’t

I love you and miss you very much. Hopefully, you are safe and unharmed. Please be careful and don’t put yourself in danger by trying to find me. So far, I've been treated well by the soldiers and I trust that they will keep all of us safe.

The world has turned into a terrifying place, but please don’t let it overwhelm you. Stay strong and do what it takes to survive.

With love,

Mom

I wiped tears from my eyes after reading the words my mom had written. There was no option; I had to find her.

Looking over at Jennifer I could see she was not having an easy time convincing Ms. Suzy and her family to go with us instead of staying with the rest of the survivors in the compound.

“You should come with us,” Jennifer said to Ms. Suzy and her daughter. “We can make it.”

“If children were not involved I would,” Ms. Suzy said. “But my daughter and I have to think about their wellbeing.”

“Don't you understand that we can't just go on the road, out there, with children?” her daughter interjected.

“Let me say something,” I said interrupting the conversation.

“You know us, Ms. Suzy,” I told her. “You don't know what the people at the next relocation center will be like. Also, you don't know if it has been overrun by freaks or not.”

“I need more time,” Ms. Suzy said.

“Okay, that’s no problem.” I told her. “We’ll be back in the morning. Hopefully then we’ll have a bunch of friends from the church with us. You’ll be able to meet them and then see how you feel – but tomorrow you’ll have to make the final decision.”

“What time will you be back?” she asked.

“I can't say exactly when, but we will be here in the morning. We will get here as soon as we possibly can.”

“Where are you going now?” she asked.

“We need to get this back to the church,” I said, holding up the map of the area the Captain had given us. “It’s right over here, near Egypt.”

“Isn't Robert going to go over to the church by himself?” Jennifer asked.

“We can't let him go alone,” I said.

“But the nuclear power plants are going to meltdown anytime,” she said. “It's not safe for all of us to head back to the church – it’s closer to the power station than we’re here.”

 “Jennifer, I just know we will be alright,” I said. “I can’t explain how, but I feel it in my gut.”

“Well . . . if you really feel sure, I trust you,” Jennifer said.

It was a relief to hear her say that. I really did feel sure it was right for us all to go back, but I still felt a level of anxiety about the plan.

As we left the tent I could see more activity was taking place. Several civilians were talking to military personnel in the distance, and I could see a number of soldiers running across the compound.

“I wonder what’s going on,” I said to Jennifer. “Let’s try and find out.”

We said goodbye to Ms. Suzy and her daughter and then headed back to the building where we had talked with the Captain.

Before we could reach the building, two soldiers in a golf cart approached us.

“Are you Hank Harper?” one of the soldiers asked us.

“Yes,” I said.

“Captain Flint has received orders to transport all extra diesel fuel to the Robert E. Lee Memorial nuclear power plant in St. Thomas. You’re to follow the convoy. Once the fuel is delivered we will escort you to the survivors at the church you told us about. If they’re willing to evacuate, we have orders to escort them back here,” the soldier said.

“That sounds good,” I responded.

“You have thirty minutes to be at the gates of the compound with your group,” he said.

The soldiers allowed Jennifer and me to exit the facility. Upon leaving, they returned our weapons as they had promised. In addition, they provided transportation to where we had left Meredith and Robert with our vehicles.

It was late in the day and nightfall would be coming soon. As we approached the abandoned city works where we had left Robert and Meredith I noticed the sky was getting darker, and the air was cooler.

“Pull around to the rear of the city works,” I told the driver.

“Yes, sir,” the young woman answered.

After climbing out of the Humvee, I saw Meredith and Robert leaning against the van. They were talking, and scattered all around them, were decapitated corpses.

I ran up to them and asked, “Are you two okay?”

“We’re fine,” Meredith answered with a weary smile.

“You two have been busy,” I said.

“Yep, the freaks seem to keep coming like clockwork. Every couple of minutes another one starts to wander in,” she said. “A gaggle of them came in together about an hour ago, but we were able to take them out without too much difficulty.”

“I'm glad you two are alright,” said Jennifer. “We have some news.”

We explained the situation to them. I told them how we needed to get back to the relocation center and then follow the convoy to the nuclear power plant. After some discussion they agreed.

Meredith handed me the keys to the van and Jennifer and I got in. With Robert and Meredith behind me in the truck, we followed the Humvee back to the compound where we found a convoy waiting.

There were two Humvees at the head, followed by a tanker truck carrying the diesel fuel. The Humvee that had taken us to the abandoned city works pulled up behind the tanker and we pulled our vehicles up behind it to complete the convoy.

A soldier came up to my window and tapped on the glass; I rolled down the window.

“We’re going to Sylvania now and should reach the nuclear plant at around midnight. Just follow us and use this radio if you have any problems. If you can't get us on the radio, blow your horn. If we encounter any of the freaks we will take them out. Do not exit your vehicle unless it is an emergency. Do you understand?” he said.

I held the radio in my hand and told him that I understood. He then went behind us and gave the same instructions to Meredith and Robert. A few moments later, the convoy was on its way.

As we drove on Jennifer and I began to talk. We discussed the note my mom had written, her desire to find her sister, and how we would convince the people at the church to evacuate. I told her that I was determined to find my mom, no matter what.

Jennifer also started to talk to me about our past. She told me that when I had tried to date her years ago, she was a different person.

“Back then I didn’t have my priorities straight,” she said. “I was not the same person I am today. I hope you know that.”

I asked her why she was never able to give me a chance as anything more than a friend, and she simply said that she’d been stupid. I told her that the problem was that she liked the bad boys, just like most women do. I was a nice guy and that meant I was boring to her. She didn’t argue with anything I said.

She was resting her head on my shoulder when the convoy stopped. I tried to look ahead, but couldn’t see anything. It was dark now and since the power grid was down there were no street lights.

I then heard several gunshots ahead of us – pop, pop, pop.

“Turn the radio on,” I told Jennifer.

She turned it on and we listened to the soldiers in the vehicles ahead of us.

“Three infected ahead at twelve o clock,” one voice said.