Infected: They Will Eat You!: A Story of Family Survival in a Zombie Apocalypse (24 page)

“No, I saw five down behind the barn, got the one.”

“Good, ‘cause I don’t want to eat our bunnies. We need them to make more that we can eat.”

I smiled. “Are they awake?”

“Yeah, they’re coming. Can I eat?”

“Sure.”

Breakfast consisted of squirrel and eggs and greens and fresh tomatoes. Once we had cleaned up we made plans for the day. “We’ll go toward town and see what we can find. I expect infected so we’ll gear up for battle.”

“Can we take the Chevy” Jesse asked.

“That’s really not a battle vehicle is it?” I asked in return.

“It could be. We can shoot out of it from all sides with the top down.” Caleb encouraged.

“No. There’s a truck up the road with a full cab, we’ll take it.”

“Why not the hummer?” Christine asked.

“I’d rather not unhook the trailer and it’s a bit conspicuous, if we need to hide from people a normal looking vehicle will be better.”

“But it has more protection and a machinegun…”

“We can take it if you want, I just think a truck is the way to go for this trip.”

“If you think so, I just don’t want my babies to be in danger.”

“We’re not babies mom.” Jesse chastised.

“You’re my babies.”

“Baby.” teased Caleb poking his brother.

“She means you too.” I said, “Let’s go.”

We got in the old truck and drove up the road to the next house. The keys to the truck were hanging on the kitchen wall with others. It started up with a little prodding and we headed back to our farm to drop off our truck, pack up and head toward town.

“I don’t want to go right into town it could be crowded with infected we’ll stay on the outskirts for now. There is a dirt track down here to the right, check the map and see what road I turn on, it will take us by town.”

“There are a lot of roads we can take….”

“It’s a state road, it’s yellow.”

“OH, 150, North Grove Street.”

We made the turn and drove a few blocks.

“Infected.” Caleb said.

“Yeah, we have a few following us.” I answered.

Everyone looked behind.

“I’ll stop in that intersection and we’ll get rid of them. Everyone take their own quarter, understand?”

They nodded.

“I’ll help in back since there are more there.”

I pulled the truck to a stop and we got out. Within thirty second all infected within range were down, we got back in the truck and continued on.

“That was excellent guys.” I said.

Christine still had trouble shooting infected but she had defined it as protecting her children which allowed her to function better.

“There’s the race track.” I said pointing to the sign.

“Farmer City Raceway.” read Jesse.

“I thought this would be a good place for a fire tonight. We can build a huge bonfire in the infield.”

“OK, that sounds good.” agreed Christine

“Through binoculars we can see it from the farm.” I added.

We drove around the parameter of town through residential areas, the high school and fields of crops.

“It’s easy to see why this is called
Farmer City
isn’t it?” Christine commented.

“Because there are so many farms here.” answered Jesse.

“It’s a town in the middle of farms.” Caleb added.

By the time we had circled the town we had stopped and shot nearly a hundred infected with no sign of any survivors. “We can drive through town if you want, I think we’ll find a lot more infected there.” I said stopping the truck.

“I don’t want to put us in danger.” Christine said.

“We’re in danger.” said Caleb.

“I mean more danger, that we couldn’t get out of.” Christine returned.

“We don’t know ‘till we do it.” I added, “We can go slow and get out fast if we see something we don’t like. Mainly you want to know if there are any survivors, right?”

“That would be my main reason to look around, yes.”

“Then let’s drive through so anyone still around will know then when they see the fire tonight they can make the next move.”

“OK, I like that.” she agreed.

“Guys, you buckled up?”

“Yeah.” they both answered.

“You’re not going to do something crazy are you?” Christine asked griping the truck door and center console hard enough to turn her knuckles white.

“If I have to do some quick maneuvering I want them secured not bouncing around.” I answered.

“OH, good. You scared me for a minute.”

We slowly made our way to the town square and turned onto Main. There wasn’t much to the town but we did pick up more infected.

“At this intersection we turn left to go to the farm. I’m going to pull through it and stop and we’ll drop this group as close to the middle of the intersection as possible. If we can pile them up we can set them on fire right there.

“Caleb and Jesse, your primary is the infected behind us and piling them up. Christine you help them but watch to your left. I’ll keep us safe from behind and to the right and help you when I can. Clear?”

They nodded. I stopped the truck and started shooting.

There weren’t but a few infected to our sides but there were a couple hundred now heading our way through the intersection. They were all slow movers so far and easy to hit. Jesse ended up in the bed of the truck propping his rifle on the tailgate. Caleb followed. The AR’s were light but it was still difficult for the boys to shoot offhand.

Sweat was pouring off of each of us by the time there were no more moving. “Good job.” I said, ‘We just used a lot of ammo but I guess looking for living is worth it. “Keep your eye’s pealed, I’m going to find some gas cans.”

I walked from house to house trying garage doors and looking for gas. I had found three cans and headed back to the truck.

“There’s probably five or six gallons here, that should get them started.” I said putting them in the back of the truck. “I don’t want you guys getting close to any of them, understand?”

They nodded.

“When we get there everyone get in the bed and watch out. If one moves shoot it. I don’t want one grabbing my leg or something.”

“Don’t get close enough for them to reach you.” ordered Caleb.

“I don’t plan to.”

I spread the gas around the bodies encircling them as best I could then tossing the open cans in the middle. We pulled the truck away and Jesse sent a round bouncing off the pavement sparking the gas WHOOSH it went up. A column of dark smoke started pouring into the sky, a sign that the infected had caught fire and we drove away.

At the farm the boys nursed our cook fire back to life and uncovered the pot with the rabbit that had been sitting in coals cooking.

“That smells good!” Jesse exclaimed.

“It should be ready.” I said.

We all sat in the shade eating rabbit stew and talking about the morning. That had been the largest group of infected we had taken on and we all handled it well.

“Today we did a good job. It shows that by working together and being prepared we can handle what comes our way. We’ve been proving that since before this whole thing happened.” I said.

They were silent for a moment.

“We have done well.” Christine said finally, “I still don’t like shooting them but if they are going to try to eat us then I’ll do it. What I am impressed with was how you guys followed direction and watched out for each other. I was scared the whole day and when daddy said what he wanted to do I just wanted him to drive as fast as he could away. But you, you were strong and did what was expected.”

“Mommy, we were scared but we knew what we had to do,” Caleb said, “and we knew daddy would not tell us to do something we couldn’t.”

“Yeah, we were never in real danger,” Jesse added, “dad wouldn’t do that.”

“Well, I understand better now” she continued, “and I’m proud of both of you.”

The boys finished eating and we let them go off and play while we cleaned up. “Tomorrow is the day we targeted to meet people or leave.” I blurted out.

“We can’t leave yet. This is a great place, why can’t we just stay here?”

“I like it too but that’s not the plan and when we didn’t follow the plan before something bad happened. But….tomorrow is the 21
st
day, I can see staying tomorrow and leaving the next but that’s it.”

She hung her head and played with the dishtowel with her hands. “I was hoping someone would show up.”

“I know, me too.”

“Do you think that means they are all dead?”

“Not necessarily. We had this all planned out, not everyone did. It’s been a lot easier for us than others I’m sure because of the planning. That’s why I think it is important to stay with the schedule. When we’ve followed it things have gone well for us.”

“Yeah.” her voice was low and I could tell she was disappointed that no one had showed up and that I was talking about leaving.

“Right now we need to start building the fire if that’s still the plan.”

She looked up, her face brightened, “OK! Maybe we’ll have people after all.”

“Give me and hour, hour and a half, and I’ll be ready to go. I think we’ll take both trucks loaded with wood. There’s a gas station down there with tires in back we’ll take a few of those, they burn well and will smoke. Anyone within fifty miles will see it.”

“OK, I’ll get ready.”

She was excited now. The chance of finding people had her spirits high.

“Hey, we may find someone but we may not.” I said wanting to prepare her.

“At least we are trying.”

We all pitched in filling the trucks with wood. Christine suggested using a trailer sitting by the RV to carry more. At five we started out stopping only to pick up a half dozen tires. The gates to the race way were chained as so Caleb brought out our bolt cutters. Once the gate was open we pulled into the middle of the infield and started unloading.

“Let’s make a row instead of a pile so it’ll burn longer.” I said hoping that this was a good idea at all.

It wasn’t a huge pile but it would make a good fire and the tires would make smoke and smell. What it would attract if anything was the big question. Over the next hour we scavenged more wood. Each piece seemed to make my wife more and more happy so we kept piling it on until it was nearly dark.

“We haven’t seen that many infected have we?” she commented “Maybe they’re almost gone.”

“I doubt it, we’ve just been careful and stayed away from where most may be. We’ve only seen a couple hundred, there could be five thousand or so in the area.”

“Let’s hope this helps find some people.”

We lit the pile of wood at one end and backed away. Within fifteen minutes it was going strong and a tire was aflame with black smoke billowing skyward.

“Not very ecologically friendly is it.” Christine commented watching the smoke rise.

“Nope, but then I can’t imagine zombies are either. It’s time to go. We’ll check it from a distance.”

We drove back to the farm with high hopes. At least Christine had high hopes, very high hopes. Right now that was what drove us, hope, faith and each other. We’d see what tomorrow would bring.

After dinner we sat in the front yard watching the glow coming from across town. If anyone was in hiding the smoke and smell of the fire would certainly attract some attention during the day and the glow at night. This fire and the burning infected this morning should be a sign that someone was around, if there was anyone left to receive the signs.

-——————————————

Morning brought another beautiful day with a clear blue sky, birds chirping and the fresh aroma of burning rubber. With coffee in hand and rifle over my shoulder I walked out the back door to look around.
“No changes here.”
It was the same in front and around the property.
“That’s a good thing.”

Back inside I found Christine pouring herself a cup of coffee.

“Anything?” she asked.

“Nothing new around here. haven’t gotten any further, ran out of coffee.” I smiled as I held out my cup. “I’ll drive up to the highway to get a better view of the racetrack. You guys stay inside with the doors locked and watch out we don’t know what the fires may have stirred up.”

“Shouldn’t we go with you?”

I knew she wanted me to be safe but I thought maybe she was also interested in seeing if anyone was at the track. “Naw, you start getting ready, I won’t be long.” With a full cup of coffee I went to the truck stopping to pick up a can of white paint and a brush from one of the sheds. I had an idea.

From the highway there was a better view of the track, it wasn’t a pretty site. Inside the track fence there must have been three or four hundred infected and there were another hundred or so milling around outside. The fire may have gotten the attention of survivors but it definitely drew in the infected.

“We got the attention of the infected.” I reported once back in the kitchen, “The track is full of them and there’s more around the outside.”

“Oh, no.” Christine was upset.

“What did we really expect so see there, a big party? It did something in drawing in the zombies and may have been seen by survivors and we don’t know it yet.”

“You’re right. I was just hoping that you would bring back another family or something.”

“Today we’ll drive around and check things out again. I want to lock the gate at the track to keep the ones inside corralled. It’ll be nice to get the ones outside inside as well….first things first, let’s get done here and go to work.”

We finished breakfast and piled in the big truck as we now affectionately called it. We had the Old Truck, the old blue Dodge we found on the farm and the Big Truck, a newer white Ford we took from up the road. As we drove over the highway Caleb shouted out “That wasn’t there before!”

“What?” Jesse asked.

“Someone painted the bridge.”

“I did it this morning. I put it there and on two columns below. If someone shows up they will know we were….
are
here.”

“Great idea honey.” Christine said.

I just smiled.

“Why don’t we write more.” suggested Jesse.

“We want to give a sign but not tell potential bad guys too much.”