Surviving The Zombie Apocalypse (Book 1): Sanctuary (14 page)

Chapter IV

The joys
of being surrounded by so many women. I am, of course, referring to the fact
that it took forever and then some to get going the next morning. I was ready
in short order, so was Simon, but the ladies took their sweet time getting
cleaned and changed. Even Briana was lagging. I think it was the influence of
the others, particularly Cherie who did her best to look absolutely lovely. She
clearly did not consider an ongoing disaster sufficient reason to be without
perfect hair or makeup. Briana had taken one look and resumed her own
preparations.

But
eventually we got going, traveling north on US-83. The road was clear and
driving easy until we reached
Scott City
. The place was crawling with zombies,
and the highway, most unfortunately, went through the center of town. They’d
surround us if we took that route. Worse, using binoculars I could see numerous
obstructions, mostly multi-car pileups. Getting around those would be difficult
and time consuming, even if the dead weren’t present in large numbers. I didn’t
want to risk it.

“Just
like Garden City,” observed Lizzy.

“It was
like that when you ran out to find us?” asked Briana.

“Not
quite as many,” she admitted. “I don’t think we’d have made it through mobs
like that. Must be the entire population over there, and then some.”

“We’re
not going through, are we?” asked Julie. Her lip was quivering.

“Not a
chance,” I replied. “We’ll go around using the agricultural roads. Got the
atlas Briana?”

“Right
here.” She opened and set it on the hood of my Jeep.

“Big
grid of them.” I pointed where I wanted to go. “We’ll take this, going around
the town, then back to the highway. We intended to do the same at
Garden City
, but Stan and the convoy took a closer
route, which was clear enough, so we did the same.”

“I used
to use them a whole lot myself,” commented Lizzy, “great for racing.”

“Why
don’t you tell them the results of that?” chimed in Mary.

Lizzy
shot her a dirty look. “There were no results.”

The
petite blonde laughed. “She had her license revoked.”

Julie
began to glare, silently adding this to her litany of reasons to dislike the
woman.

“I
haven’t been on any of these in years, officially, since I’m not supposed to
drive, technically.” She grimaced. “But I say pass to the west. Those are in
better shape and were used less by the farmers. Tractors and combines tear up
the pavement pretty fast.”

“West it
is,” I said. “I’ll take the lead, and I’ll go slow. If there’s a problem honk.”

“Not too
much,” added Briana. “Don’t want to attract the zombies more than we have to.”

“Yeah,
good point. Change that to wave or something if you can. Passengers try to keep
an eye on the other cars, at least till we get back on the highway.”

*
* *

The
advice sounded good at the time. As it was, it didn’t matter. We were even with
the town, although some massive corn fields separated us from Scott City, when
I saw the Bransons’ SUV swerve to the side, nearly lose control despite
traveling at under twenty miles an hour, and come to a sudden stop in the
middle of the road.

“What
happened?” asked Briana.

“Don’t
know.” I put the Jeep in reverse and began backing up. Cherie pulled up beside
them, and Lizzy hopped out of the little Toyota. “A flat, I think.”

It
turned out to be a blown tire, the left front one, and it had popped while
sliding into a pothole, bad luck all around. Fortunately, Simon managed to keep
control and didn’t roll the SUV. On the down side, Julie was in a bad state and
had both her children crying as she went on about how the zombies were coming
for them.

Enough!”
I shouted. “Everyone, quiet down.”

They did
so in short order, and I was suddenly grateful that I was the tallest, most
imposing person in our group, not that I ever considered myself intimidating.
But even if my appearance wasn’t the reason, it was nice to have the whole lot
of them shut up.

“Do you
have a spare?”

Simon
nodded. “In the back, under a panel.”

I
glanced at their vehicle. Like me, they’d stuffed the rear with all sorts of
things which would have to be moved in order to reach the spare tire.

“Kids,
don’t wander off. Mary, look after them, will you?”

“Sure
thing Jacob.”

“Okay,
here’s the plan. Simon and Julie will empty the back so they can get to the
spare. Simon will change the tire, while Julie puts everything back, including
the rim for the blown one in case we need it for something. Lizzy, go a bit
that way and keep an eye out.” I pointed north. “Briana, you go the other way.
If you see any zombies, let me know. Don’t shoot unless you have to. I don’t
want to attract more of them.”

The road
was straight, and we could see a good distance in each direction, but the sides
held fields of corn that topped six or seven feet. We wouldn’t detect anything
coming from there until it was nearly on top of us.

“Not
that far Lizzy,” I called. I glanced over at Simon and Julie. Both were still
milling about. “Get to work and hurry. Keep an eye in all directions and stand
in the middle of the road.” That last piece was for Lizzy and Briana.

While
they emptied their stuff, I set Lois and Cherie to watching the near endless
rows of corn on either side. That should help. Personally, I just walked around
until they had the spare out. It was one of those little pretend donut tires.
That thing would get them maybe fifty miles under current conditions, probably
less. This was not good.

BANG!

I spun
and saw that Lizzy had shot a zombie. It was close to her and covered with
leaves and dirt.

“Did
that come from the field?”

“Sure
did,” she answered. “Quiet little fucker. Was all the way out before I noticed
it.”

Julie
frowned at the language but didn’t say anything, although she might have been
mumbling under her breath. I wasn’t in the best position to tell.

“Careful.
More are likely to show up now.”

I helped
Simon jack up the SUV while Julie began putting their stuff back in place. They
had several bags with toys and children’s clothes, but not much food or
survival gear. We were going to have to stock up, and I needed to be certain
every vehicle had plenty of food and water. It would really suck to have to abandon
a car for some reason and for that one to have held all the essential supplies.

“Hey
Jacob, got more coming.”

Lizzy
was backing away from the field that rested between the road and town.

Grumbling
to myself, I left Simon to finish screwing in the lug nuts and went to see.
“That’s rather a lot of them, don’t you think?” I certainly thought so.

“Yeah,
I’m pretty sure they followed the gunshot.” Lizzy did not sound apologetic.
“Might get worse if we start shooting more.”

I
nodded. “In the car. We’ll run.”

I headed
back and gestured for Briana to join us.

“We need
to finish this,” I told Simon. He was almost done with the nuts. They were
sticking, and it was slower going than it should have been. “Hurry up.”

Grabbing
the rim, which still had a few rings of rubber clinging to it, I tossed the
thing in the back of the SUV, atop the bags Julie was so very carefully
stacking.

“Watch
it,” she snapped. “I don’t want that in here. It’s filthy.”

“Zombies
are coming, and we don’t have any more time.”

She
whirled about and, spotting the approaching corpses, began to panic. At least
Mary was there to help get the children situated and buckled in. Julie might
not have been capable on her own. Simon, meanwhile, finished with the tire and
was lowering the SUV. The jack was one of those that had a big screw you turned
around. They are efficient and easy to use, but terribly slow.

“Ladies,
why don’t all of you get back in too and be ready to drive off.”

“I’ll
wait until they’re ready,” argued Lizzy. She was pointing her pistol at the
oncoming zombies.

“Done,”
called Simon.

Thank
God for that.

He
climbed into his SUV and dropped the jack in his wife’s lap. That earned him
more than a few screams which were mercifully cut off when he closed the door
and started the engine.

“Time to
go Lizzy.”

She said
nothing as she ran for Cherie’s car. I headed for the Jeep. The nearest zombies
were about twenty feet away when I locked the door and shifted into drive.
Leaving them behind, I took a long look in the rear view mirror. There were at
least forty of the things on the road, but the corn field, the one nearest the
town, was rustling. More were on their way. That had been close.

What we
needed was a way to kill zombies without having to use the guns, both to save
on ammunition that would eventually run out, and to get rid of the random one
without making a lot of noise and attracting others. A sledgehammer to the
skull would definitely do the job, but that would splatter all sorts of
nastiness. Would getting their blood on you cause an infection like a bite did?
I still did not know, and I wasn’t inclined to experiment.

*
* *

We made
it back to the highway without any further mishaps. There was a brief pause
near the north side of the city in case anyone signaled us, but the place
appeared devoid of life. So, leaving the area behind, I guided the others into
Scott State Park, which was only a few miles from the town. It was getting
late, and we needed a secure place to rest and figure out how to proceed,
particularly regarding the Bransons’ SUV. They couldn’t keep going on that
spare.

Entering
and seeing no zombies, or people for that matter, we pulled up beside the lake.
It was well off the road, and the ground was flat enough that all the cars
could get there, albeit slowly. Hopefully, it would be as safe as the fields
Briana and I had been spending our nights in.

“Can we
play?” asked Michael.

Juliette
was even more pleading. “Please Mommy.”

“Do you
think it’s safe?” she asked. Her eyes flicked to the side as she peered about,
searching for any sign of danger.

“Should
be. Just stay here, near the water and us.”

They
joyfully rushed off, promptly stepped into the lake, and began splashing.

“You
have dry clothes for them?” I inquired, quite amused.

“Of
course I do,” snapped Julie.

Pleasant
woman.

While
they had their fun – Mary joined in, although she tried not to get too wet – the
rest of us began to discuss where we could likely find some new cars,
preferably trucks, that would allow for easier and more dependable movement. We
needed to upgrade before continuing.

Juliette’s
scream was piercing, even for a six year old. I looked over just in time to see
her vanish beneath the surface of the water.

“Mary!
Get Michael out of there!” I shouted.

She was
ushering Juliette’s older brother out of the lake as I ran in with Simon close
behind. I made it to the spot where Juliette had gone under when the ground
suddenly gave way beneath me. There was a massive drop off. The water was
murky, but I was just able to make out her flailing form. Grabbing an arm I
pulled her up and scrambled back to where I could stand. Lifting the child
carefully, I handed her off to Simon.

“Her
leg,” gasped Cherie, placing a hand over her mouth.

Blood
was gushing from a wound, a bite on her inner thigh just beneath the spot where
her pink shorts ended.

“Tie
it,” I said, whipping my leather belt off and handing it to Simon who was
better positioned to act.

He began
to affix the tourniquet but stopped as she convulsed and fell still.

“Juliette?”
Her mother began to shake. “Juliette!”

“Fucking
zombie,” snarled Lizzy.

My
attention shifted to the lake. One of the shambling dead was clambering up the
steep incline into the shallows. Its movements were slow, even considering it
had just fed, and the thing clearly did not float. In fact, the zombie seemed
to be significantly denser than the water. Additionally, being submerged hadn’t
caused it any apparent harm. The skin wasn’t wrinkled and did not look any
different from the others we’d encountered. The clothes had largely rotted
away, but enough remained to identify him as a park ranger, most likely
assigned to this very place.

“Bastard,”
fumed Lizzy.

She
picked up a large rock and smashed it against the zombie’s head. It staggered
and fell a few feet from the bank. Standing in the ankle deep water, Lizzy
glared down at the thing before she proceeded to beat it mercilessly. The skull
shattered, and she was sprayed with blood and gore. It appeared that we’d find
out how dangerous zombie fluids and guts were after all.