What Zombies Fear (Book 2): The Maxists (8 page)

“
Mom, this is amazing. I don’t even know how to get started on a project like this. I wish Renee was here.”

My sister Renee never made it to the house. She and her husband had been on the way on the night I arrived, but we never heard from them again. We seldom talked about them. They had two small children, Max’s cousins. Before the end of the world Renee had been a project manager for a large construction company dealing with logistics and time lines on huge construction projects. This kind of thing was her specialty.

“
I miss her too Victor.” Mom said, her eyes misting up a little bit.

“
Ok, Mom. What do you think is the first step?”

“
Immediately, we need to get this wall thing started. The property has no defense from the north east. I know you shut down the road there, but anything could come on foot or by four-wheel drive. While we’re building the wall, we need to get temporary living arranged, get some sanitation in place and get some sort of food stores tucked in for the winter. It’s going to be a long winter and its already September. The garden is almost done.”

“
Do you think a greenhouse would help? We could head down to that nursery between here and Fredericksburg, disassemble one and bring it back.”

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It would still be spring before any yield. This winter is going to be canned vegetables.”

“
Where do you think I can get enough canned vegetables? We’re going to need two tractor trailer loads of cans to get this group through the winter and into the spring growing season.”

“
Our restaurant food supplier was out of Charlottesville. There’s a large Sysco warehouse there. I think we could get enough from them, but Charlottesville is a pretty big city. There are going to be lots of zombies there.”

“
Killing zombies I can handle. We’re pretty good at that,” I replied.

“
So, my priorities are set for tomorrow. I’ll see who we have down at the barn that can step up and take charge of the wall. I’ll organize one team to go scout Charlottesville. I’ll send another team to check out the buffalo farm, we’re going to need a couple of large trucks and trailers. We’re out of diesel, but I found a pretty good supply, enough to fill our tank. Marshall, John, Leo and I will handle the rest of the fuel problems.”

It was well after dark now. Mom and I had been talking for almost an hour. I grabbed the radio base station and called a staff meeting.

By the time everyone arrived, it was almost 9:30pm. With measures in place to save power and candles being limited, most of the whole colony went to sleep shortly after dark. It was too hot to keep a fire going in the fireplace just for light. I hung a battery powered lantern from the chandelier in the small dining room and went over my whole previous conversation.

“
That’s a huge project, mate,” John said, looking at the plans for the wall. “How are you going to transport that much stone here?”

“
I’m not sure yet John, logistics isn’t really my strong suit.”

“
You know I was a bloody miner before the end of the world, right mate? Moving earth is my thing. If they’ve got a couple of huge dump trucks, we can haul it here and dump it.”

“
That’s a ton of fuel, John. I don’t know the top speed of those trucks, but I’m not sure there’s enough fuel left to do it. I think we’re going to have to go back further than that. My thought was a pair of four-wheelers dragging a flat bottomed barge up the river. I’m by no means an expert.”

“
That could work, but I don’t think a four-wheeler could drag more than a couple stones, even on a floating barge. It’s going to take something pretty massive.”

”
I agree with Mom that this is something we’re going to have to do. We might need to find flatbed trailers and tractors to haul the stone. They get around thirteen miles per gallon under load, that would be two gallons of diesel each way, eight gallons per day hauling. Let’s table the details for now. Charlie, do we have any logistical people in our colony?”

“
One last point mate, one of the women down the hill was a horse trainer. I think it makes the most sense to use horses to drag the stones on wagons or up the river on barges. In the UK, the gypsies still use draft horses to pull their barges down the canals. If we can find the right types of horses, I’m sure we can make a go of it,” said John.

“
Sir, there are a couple of construction workers in the mix, but I’ve only really polled those who had working jobs that seemed valuable. I’ll find out about someone with logistics experience.”

“
Thanks Charlie,” I said. “Now, let’s move on to more pressing matters. We’re going to have harder scavenging tomorrow. We need diesel, that’s our primary goal. We need food. Its September already, winter is coming and we need a ton of canned food. We can find meat and keep it fresh, but vegetables and starches we’re going to need lots of. Mom and I figured two tractor trailer loads of cans and dry goods. There’s a Sysco warehouse in Charlottesville off Rio Rd, I need someone to reconnoiter that and get us a general feeling of what kind of shape Charlottesville is in.”

“
Are you and your team taking one of those runs Tookes?” asked Charlie.

“
We’ve got other plans, Charlie. Other than diesel, these are strictly recon, in and out, quiet and clean.”

“
Yes sir. Quiet and clean. We’ll bring back a fuel and if possible a truck load of food.”

“
Thanks Charlie. I appreciate your efforts, you’re a good leader and I’m lucky to have you.”

“
Thank you, sir,” Replied Bookbinder, getting up from the table. ”I’ll deliver the orders to the men. We won’t let you down. If that is all, I’m going to get some rack time.”

I nodded and stayed seated while Charlie headed out to his cottage to get some sleep.

“
We have a lot to do here. Marshall and I have to finish the power generation on the roof of the barn, so we can put the police band radio repeater up there. Leo and John, I’d like you two to go down to the river.”

“
Ok,” they said together.

“
Find the old mill race and the old dam. The dam was knocked over a hundred years ago, but the stones should all still be there. I think that those stones are what created that little white water area where the mill race left the river. I want to rebuild that damn, to be able to divert water down the mill race. We’re going to need to rebuild that mill and also I have some ideas for hydroelectric power generation.”

“
Vic, is there anything you don’t know about?” asked Marshall.

“
I know a little bit about a lot of things, but a lot about very few things. What I do know is that there is a whole library in Culpeper and I bet I can find all the information I lack. Power generation is actually a simple thing. Turn magnets inside of copper coil and you get electricity.”

“
Tomorrow we’re taking a little break, I know I could use a day to finish projects and I hope you three will take the time to do something fun and productive. Life can’t be all about zombies. All zombie killing and no play makes John a dull boy. Let’s go to bed.”

The next morning I rolled over and woke Leo right at dawn with a kiss.

“
Good morning dragon breath.” I said grinning.

“
Me?” She asked incredulously, “You really should make toothpaste a scavenging priority. This baking soda we’re using isn’t doing much for you either.”

I threw my arms around her and kissed her again, squeezing her to me.

“
We have a lot to do today and it’s going to be a long day. Let’s go help Mom with the breakfast and get to work.”

Leo and I helped Mom and her two kitchen helpers Sarah and Eveline prepare enough oatmeal for the locals. We took four of her largest stock pots down to the camp wrapped in bath towels to keep them warm and dished oatmeal to anyone who wanted. I always tried to fill the bowls of the skinniest people a little extra. When we were done, it was almost 6:30.

“
It’s amazing how quickly we adjusted to not having much electricity. It’s amazing how quickly we changed from being awake until midnight to getting up at 5:15 with the sun and going to bed early, just a few hours after dark.” I remarked.

As we were finishing up stacking the dishes, I felt an odd twinge at the back of my skull. It made me think of Max, Max was awake upstairs. I focused on Max’s baby blue aura. “
Max, can you hear me?
” I thought quietly.

“
Yes Daddy. The army man is coming. He will be here in a few minutes, you should listen to him.”

“
I will listen.”

“
Leo, can you go get Marshall, John and Charlie? Frye is coming and I need to hear what he’s going to tell me.

“
Vic, how do you know?” She replied.

“
I can, uhh, see his aura coming.” I lied, as Leo took off to get the others.

I grabbed my gear, which I’d decided to keep on top of the book case at the central stairwell of the house, strapped on my vest and headed down to the gates. We were sitting there waiting when Frye and his men pulled up. They parked two vehicles as they always did, both pointing at the gate.

Frye knew that I wasn’t intimidated. He knew that I wasn’t afraid of him; I think this must be a standard military protocol. It made good sense, I suppose, if you were heading to a meeting with a hostile force. I wasn’t necessarily hostile. We were technically on the same side. I just didn’t trust him. He must have felt the same way about me and who knows what his men thought of me. Frye dismounted his truck and strode over to me.

“
Colonel Frye. Good of you to drop by, I trust we won’t need to repeat the last visit?”

“
Tookes, I have intel.” Frye said without a hint of red slashes in his aura.

“
Are you going to share all of it? Or are you holding something back? I don’t really trust you, Colonel.”

“
Yesterday evening I got a coded radio message from the pentagon. There are one hundred fifty civilians and fifty military personnel being held prisoner by infected at the Department of Defense building in Germantown, MD. It’s about two hours from here. Among the civilians is a research scientist from the CDC that has an idea about how to make us immune to the infection.”

“
How many are holding them?” I asked.

“
At least two hundred infected. Our scout got back at daylight. He reported ten smart ones, including two that can fly.”

“
What kind of weapons do they have? What can you tell me about the DOD building?”

“
Standard military issue, assault rifles, a couple of fifty’s, body armor. I’m unsure of their ammunition status, but there was a depot there before the outbreak. Germantown was the scene of some pretty serious fighting, the marines made their last stand there. They may have tapped into that ammunition depot.”

“
These supers, specifically the flying ones, do they have any other powers that we know? I assume they’re fast, all of them seem to be faster than normal humans.” I asked.

“
I have no intel on their abilities other than that they can fly.”

“
What am I to do with them once they are free?” I asked. I couldn’t take two hundred more people in our settlement just yet, but I didn’t really want Frye to know that.

“
They’re to be relocated to my facility. There are also two other goals to the mission. Doctor Jerry Roberts is the CDC expert. He says the supers took his research; we’d really like to have that data. Secondly, if you can recover the ammunition in that depot, I’ll give you half of it as payment for services rendered.”

“
I’ll do it, but I’m keeping everything I can recover. Whatever it is, vehicles, ammunition, equipment, whatever I recover is mine. I’ll deliver the soldiers and civilians to you.”

“
Tookes, that’s property of the US military.” Flashes of purple invaded his aura, purple tended to mean someone was ready to fight, or was feeling very strongly about something. I started watching for shadows to shoot out of Frye.

“
That’s the price. You need us to do this for you, or you wouldn’t have come at all. If you want me to save these people for you, it has to benefit me.” I said. I would have done it just to save the humans being held. But if I could benefit from it as well, then that’s even better.”

“
Alright. When can you leave?” asked Frye “I’ll need to let my contacts know when you’re going to be there so they can lend support.”