Zombie Rules (Book 4): Destiny (11 page)

“The smell was ungodly,” Ruth said while wrinkling her nose.

“When we got the Humvee loaded, we had to shoot our way out. We had five hundred rounds of ammo and we used every bit of it.”

“We should still go back and check,” Major Parsons remarked. I looked at the other two as if to say, I told you so. They didn’t bother to respond.

The four of us were silent now. Frederick was very talkative and had a hell of a conversation with Hank, who in turn listened patiently while he nibbled on a patch of grass, only twitching an ear occasionally.

“How did it begin, Major?” Major Parsons looked at me somberly.

“That’s the million dollar question. It started somewhere in the Mideast. Cairo was supposed to have identified patient zero, but the information was very limited and questionable. The consensus is human-to-human contact was the way it spread, much like the flu. That’s what patient zero complained of when he was admitted, flu-like symptoms.” He held his hands up and shrugged.

“Other than that, we are still unsure of its genesis.”

“Zach?” I looked over to see Ruth staring at me. “Is there an option available for us to stay here?” It took me by surprise.

“Why would you want to stay here?”

“Because we have nowhere else to go,” she replied morosely. My first impulse was to tell them to get off of my farm, but I kept hearing what Kelly and I had discussed the other night.

“What about your family? Where were they, Oregon?” I asked. She frowned.

“We spoke with some people who had come from Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. They advised the travel through that area was like traveling through hell.” I thought it over. In fact, I’d been thinking this over ever since they’d arrived.

“Y’all have done more traveling than I have, so I can only advise you about the immediate area. I’d not recommend downtown Nashville. A sizeable portion is underwater. What’s left has an overwhelming number of both zombies and rats. They’re everywhere. The Nolensville, La Vergne, and Smyrna areas aren’t too bad and there are very few people, but I can’t say how many zombies are running around.” I pointed south.

“Down that way is an area called College Grove and beyond that is a quaint city called Lewisburg. Lots of farmland. I’ve checked out some of it and there are plenty of farms which are vacant.

“Let’s see, as I said, downtown Nashville is nasty, Old Hickory Lake is toxic, so I can only assume the Cumberland River is as well.” I paused a moment. “I suppose I can work up a map.”

Ruth looked at Justin and he cleared his throat. “Would you be opposed to helping us out until we get on our feet?”

I stared at the three of them a moment before looking out over the farm and fixing my eyes on the mound where everyone was buried. Maybe Fred was there, maybe he wasn’t. Why I’d decided on Fred and not Konya or Terry, I didn’t know. Kelly seemed to really believe they were all dead.

I sat there staring at it for a full two minutes thinking it over. At first I was going to say I needed to talk it over with Kelly, but I already knew what she was going to say.

“I suppose so,” I finally answered.

I finally have good news to write into this journal. My children have been returned to me. After I had escaped from my imprisonment, my captors loaded up and relocated to the CDC in Atlanta, taking my children with me. So, yesterday, three of them showed up at the farm with my kids.

They had a big story of how the CDC had been overrun by zombies and they grabbed my kids and heroically escaped. I questioned them extensively about it. They believe it was a deliberate, planned attack by the zombies. The story seems plausible, but I’m naturally suspicious.

We discussed other things, specifically their actions concerning my family and me. I’ll not take the time to write out the details. Suffice it to say, they have apologized for their actions and put the blame on poor judgement and blind obedience to orders. In addition, the three of them swear they were not in the group that had attacked my former home and murdered everyone.

They think I have naïvely accepted this explanation and have forgiven them. Not true. After talking it over with Kelly, we allowed them to stay on our farm. I have several things going on in my brain when it concerns them. Some of those ideas are forgiving in nature, others are vengeful. I’m really not sure how to proceed at the moment, but until I decide, I’d like to keep them close by where I’ll have no trouble finding them. They’ve been staying at the old homestead for the past two days and have really cleaned it up and made several repairs. They salvaged some windows from a home somewhere and replaced several of the broken ones. I must grudgingly admit, I like their incentive and I’ve decided to start including them in the farm work.

The bottom line is my kids are back where they belong, with their father. Not with a group of strangers and being used as guinea pigs. I don’t think it really hit me until the second night. After Kelly had dozed off, I sat up and watched my kids sleeping. They looked so innocent and peaceful. It had a profound effect on me and reawakened in me the belief and resolve to survive and make this world a better place for my family.

The little stinker had awakened before me, again, and he was very vocal about it. Kelly stirred, rolled over, and groaned.

“He’s just like his father,” she lamented as she sat up and stretched. “Up before the sun.” Frederick screamed out something unintelligible, causing Kelly to groan again. “He’s very loud, were you like that when you were a kid?” I chuckled and gave her a kiss.

“My grandmother said I was very quiet. I guess he takes after his mother in that respect.” I crawled out of bed. “I’ll take care of him.”

“Are the Marines joining us for breakfast?” Kelly asked.

“I assume so,” I responded. “I have a little surprise for them today.”

“What’s that?”

“I’m going to work their asses off. I’ve got a list for the major and you’re going to keep Ruth busy. Sergeant Smithson is going to help me all day.” Kelly chuckled.

“That’s good. You and Justin need some quality time together.” I frowned suddenly. That’s not what I had in mind.

Little Frederick’s morning singing, yelling, and general discourse about who knows what also succeeded in waking up his little sister. She looked at her big brother in irritation as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. She definitely was not a morning person, much like her mother. I herded the two of them into the bathroom, where Kelly was already waiting for us.

“Any chance of hot showers tonight?” Kelly asked as she rinsed out some wash cloths.

“If we have a sunny day, the batteries will be fully charged, so I don’t see why not.”

“Awesome,” she said as she used the washrag on my back. I stood there a moment in front of the mirror and looked at myself. At six-feet, three inches and somewhere around two-twenty, my physique was lean and toned without an ounce of fat. The effects of farm fresh food and hard work was showing. I vowed to make sure my kids never lacked and grow up to be healthy and strong. Kelly tossed a towel in my face, indicating I needed to stop gawking and help dry off the kids.

“Alright, let’s get breakfast going, I’m hungry.”

“You know, after breakfast, they’ll be needing a diaper change.”

“Yeah, it’s time to potty train him,” I said, pointing to Frederick, who was inspecting our toilet and was about to stick his hand in it before Kelly grabbed him. She picked him up and handed him to me.

“Yeah, it’s way past due. You would have thought those people who claimed to be so fond of them would have taken the time to do that,” she remarked. She was right, of course. There were a lot of things they could have done differently, but I kept telling myself to focus on the here and now and said as much.

“Yeah, there’s been so much bad stuff in the past we’ll drive ourselves crazy if we dwell on it.” She then grinned. “So, why don’t you focus on the present and start by bringing some firewood inside.”

“Zach, we couldn’t help but notice this house is a little bit different than most other houses,” Ruth remarked. We had all gathered for breakfast, with the exception of Major Parsons. He was not allowed inside my house and was currently sitting in a chair outside, although Kelly had taken him a plate. “It doesn’t look like a typical home.”

“We built it about a year after,” I said. “The thought process behind its style of construction was an emphasis on strength and practicality rather than aesthetics.”

“I like the thick concrete walls,” the sergeant said.

“Designed for protection against small arms fire,” I replied. “It was a little difficult fitting windows but Fred and I figured it out.”

“Where did you find those metal shutters?” he asked.

“We fabricated them. There’s a factory in La Vergne that has a pretty good machine shop. The bad part of that is, we had to use a generator and only use one piece of machinery at a time.” I gestured around. “We’ve got a septic tank system, well water, solar power, and a fireplace, along with some other things. It’s more or less zombie proof.” But that’s about it, I thought. I didn’t show them the basement or where I had started working on creating an escape tunnel.

“Unfortunately, the insulation values aren’t as good as a regular house. During the winter, the bedrooms get a little chilly. It’s something I need to work on.” I also didn’t tell them about all of those nights Kelly and I slept naked in front of the fireplace. Kelly gave me a subtle, knowing smile.

“Did you build it?” Justin asked.

“It was a collective effort. Fred originally lived here, who as you know was murdered in cold blood. By the way,” I casually asked while gesturing with my fork. “Fred and Konya, he was another friend, were both shot by a sniper. Who was the sniper in your unit, Sergeant?” He glanced at Ruth before looking back at me.

“All Marines receive rifle marksmanship training,” he replied warily. “Back before, we logged a lot of time on the gun range.” I shook my head in disagreement.

“Yeah, well, I’m certain this particular soldier had some formal training beyond basic rifle marksmanship.” I kept eating, but watched out of the corner of my eye while they fidgeted with their food. I didn’t mention my thoughts about one of them possibly surviving, I hadn’t even discussed it with Kelly. No need getting her hopes up for nothing.

“For a man who never served, you seem to know a lot about military doctrine.” Justin observed.

“I had two very good tutors,” I replied. They both listened attentively as I told them about Rick and Terry.

“Rick was a good teacher, even when he was drunk. He had several dozen military manuals he used to train me with,” I said, and pointed toward the bookshelves in the den. “There they are.” Ruth stood and walked to the shelves, scanning all of the books.

“This is quite a collection,” she observed and pulled out a hardback copy of poetry by Poe. “Very diverse.”

“I’ve raided a few libraries.”

“Something tells me you’ve read every one of them,” she said with a smile.

“A few of them I read more than once.” I pointed at the book she was holding. “I like that one. You can borrow it, if you want.” Sergeant Smithson joined us in the den.

“Those manuals leave a lot out,” he remarked.

“Yeah, they don’t replace practical application. When Terry and I became friends, we’d spend hours discussing each one. He was good about helping me fill in all the blanks that the manuals left out.”

“This Rick fellow, and Terry, they sound like two pretty good guys,” he remarked. I nodded.

“They were. And Fred. They were the best friends you could hope for.” The sergeant gave me a short look before focusing back on the books.

“So, neither of you have an idea who this sniper is?” There was no answer. “Seems odd,” I continued. “You guys lived together, you ate together, trained together, killed zombies together, but you don’t seem to know which Marine in your unit who would have been assigned sniper duty.” Justin looked at Ruth and cleared his throat.

“When we got back to Fort Campbell that day, everyone was pretty quiet. Well, Solonowski was his usual self, but everyone else was pretty subdued, and at that time Ruth and I weren’t…”

“Close,” Ruth said.

“Yeah, we weren’t an item at that time, so we didn’t talk a lot. It took a couple of days before I got the whole story from everyone.”

“I’m listening.”

“When we snatched you, one of those people who dropped a dime on you also told the Colonel about your kids. So, he made the decision to snatch them too and issued a FRAGO.

“Well, they drive up to the house and the colonel got on the loudspeaker. When he announced his intentions, someone fired a shot from inside the house. It went downhill from there. A corporal by the name of O’Neil was the team sniper. He advised us later he took out two men.” He looked at me steadily.

“If you’re looking for revenge, I’m not certain any of them who were directly involved are left alive. We think they were all killed when the CDC was overrun, although I can’t be certain.”

“You've said a few times there were no other survivors, are you sure?” I asked.

“It’s hard to say, Zach. Have you ever been there or seen pictures of the place?” he asked. I shook my head. “It’s a sprawling complex and is surrounded by other large office buildings. We were set up in the Arlen Specter Headquarters, and although we had defensive fortifications, they were able to gain entry through the third floor windows.”

“Tell them about the head butting,” Ruth said.

“Yeah, I didn’t really give that one credit when I explained it before. One of the last radio transmissions from personnel on the third floor was the zombies were breaking out the windows by head butting them. It was amazing, one of them would butt the window like a ram. It'd bust his skull open and he'd die, but the window would be cracked and another one would immediately take his place. It'd take three or four of them before they had the window smashed open.”

“I see, I think.” I paused a minute. “Did y’all have any human contact on the way back up here?” Justin nodded.

“Not coming back,” Justin replied. “But, we did when we originally went.

“When we left Fort Campbell, we encountered a motley group of about a dozen people who had erected a roadblock on I-24 right at the top of that mountain, what is it called?”

“Monteagle Mountain?” I guessed. He nodded.

“Yeah, that’s it. Anyway, they were trying to demand payment for allowing us to pass. Long story short, words were exchanged and they opened fire on us. They killed two of our Marines.”

“What did y’all do?” I asked, but I probably already knew the answer.

“What choice did we have, we shot back. I’d say we took most of them out, maybe all of them. On the way back, we were worried they might retaliate against us, but there was nobody and the roadblock seemed to be untouched from the time we cleared it. Some of the bodies were still there, but not all of them.” He paused. “There were zombies here and there. I guess the largest group we saw after we left Atlanta was about a hundred of them just outside of Chattanooga.” He looked at Ruth for confirmation. She nodded. “Being totally out of ammo, we avoided them like the plague, no pun intended. Other than that, as we drove we’d see an occasional column of smoke, but we didn’t have any contact with anyone.”

Ah yes, the telltale smoke. Columns of smoke were like a big arrow pointing out your location. When the world first went into turmoil, there were so many things on fire it wasn’t an issue. Now it was. Try as I might, I couldn’t figure out a way around it. I tried to be nonchalant as I reached for my notepad and began writing. I paused only long enough to ask a question here and there. Frederick, who loved to sit on my lap while we ate, became amused by my writing and started hitting my pencil with his little hand. The result was a lot of messed up penmanship, but I didn’t mind.

“Zach, would you mind if the major can come inside?” Ruth asked. I shook my head. Justin chuckled.

“You don’t like him very much,” he commented.

“You’re absolutely correct. I’m not so sure I like you either.”

“Yeah, I’m aware of that. I was certain you’d try to kill us as soon as we made an appearance, but Ruth was confident you wouldn’t,” he remarked with a hint of questioning in his tone.

“I guess she knows me well enough, but truth be told, I was within a breath of opening up on y’all until I saw my kids.”

“So, that stopped you.”

“Yeah. I’ll admit though, while we were standing there eyeballing each other, I was still considering it.” As the two Marines stared at me, wondering how serious I was, I saw Kelly looking at me out of the corner of my eye.

“But I didn’t do it. Let’s just leave it at that. Besides, like you said, that man outside is the only doctor around here. I don’t like it, but someone around here will eventually need his skills. But, it would be wise advice if you told him to tread carefully.”

“Fair enough,” he said. “I’ll try not to make you regret your decision.” He stood.

“I’ll guess we’ll get out of your way.” I stopped him by holding up a hand.

“It’s time the three of you started earning your keep.” I stood up and motioned for them to follow me outside. Major Parsons stopped eating and looked up questioningly.

“You three are going to do farm chores today,” I said and pulled a sheet of paper out of my pocket. “These are your chores,” I said to Parsons while handing the paper to him. “It mostly involves cleaning shit out of the chicken coop and barns.” I gestured at Ruth.

“You’ll be helping Kelly.” Ruth nodded in acceptance.

“What about me?” Justin asked with a wry grin.

“I’m going to be working my ass off doing farm chores and you’re going to be doing them right beside me.” I waited for anyone to balk or argue, but the three of them nodded in silence. “Alright, let’s get to it.”

“You mean to tell me you’ve never ridden a horse?” I asked Justin. He grinned and shook his head.

“Walk me through it, I catch on quick.”

“Alright, the first step before putting a saddle on a horse is to brush and comb out any dirt, burs, and whatever else.” Justin watched as I brushed Sate. I gestured at the big stallion.

“You have to watch this one close. He’ll bite the hell out of you if you’re not careful. His name is Sate, which is short for Satan. Bo named him after a horse in a Louis L’Amour novel. He’s a mean one, but he’s tough as nails and can run like the wind.” I nodded at Hank as I handed him the curry comb. “Hank is a gelding. He’s much more docile. You’ll be riding him.”