Zomblog Page 18

  Then…he jumped.

  The zombies were like a crowd at a fireworks display. Instead of “ooo’s” and “ahhh’s” there was a ripple of moans and snapping teeth. Arms reached skyward, almost in unison, reminding me of that scene in Close Encounters where the Frenchman asked the crowd of desert dwellers where the sound and light came from and they pointed straight up.

  He caught the thinner pine which swayed violently. Climbing just a bit higher, Jimmy began rocking back and forth. All the while, the zombies are going crazy below. Then he reaches out and grabs the next tree. Tree by tree he moves away from us, bringing practically all of the hundreds of zombies that had surrounded us.

  That allowed Roy to get the deuce moving and Meredith to dash for the Hummer. In no time we had bashed or decapitated the stubborn remnant that remained between us and our goal of getting into the cab. Bill remained in the back, the idea was to drive to a spot where Jimmy could jump down. I got the big deuce rolling and followed the “path” that Roy was making through the zombies who were now torn as to which meal possibility to pursue.

  Bill slapped the roof of the cab, signaling me to stop. I heard a thud as Jimmy landed in back and then gassed it again to break out of the ever-thickening ring of walking dead. In seconds that seemed agonizingly slow we were out on what passed for a road.

  Roy had opened about a good fifty yard lead by the time we rolled out of the trees and was hard to see through the rooster-tail of dust in his wake. We were driving faster than was sensible, but, at that moment, fear and adrenaline were pretty much in charge of the show.

  He still says he never saw the three men until they were right in front of him waving their arms frantically. He also says, and I believe him, he wouldn’t have slowed down the slightest in light of recent events. The men dove out of the way at the last second and came up shooting.

  As we rounded the corner, we were just in time to see the deuce swerve and then roll up the embankment on the left and flip onto its right side. Three men were in a line and, as they walked side-by-side, began pumping rounds into the incapacitated vehicle.

  Whether it was how focused they were on shooting, or the noise from their guns, they never had a chance to react. I think one of them just started to turn his head when I plowed into them with my deuce.

  That was also the almost exact same moment that the other deuce exploded.

  I slammed on the brakes and we skidded to a stop. The heat from the flames made it impossible to approach much closer than ten or twenty feet for a moment. Then the rounds in back started to cook off. All of us had gotten out and were just standing in the road like gawking idiots when shots began popping like popcorn. We dove back behind the protection of the truck until it stopped.

  Of course by then we had the leading edge of the zombies we had left behind shambling up the road towards us. They were spread out enough that we were able to dispatch them without drawing guns…not that our location was likely any great big secret.

  Bill and Jimmy along with Kyle took care of the zombies. Meanwhile, Meredith and I inched as close as we could to the burning deuce. It was Meredith who spotted Roy’s legs on the far side of the upside-down vehicle. We raced around to the other side. The deuce was sitting on its hood now, laying crossways blocking most of the road. The explosion had helped flip it the rest of the way over and deposit it smack dab in our way.

  Unfortunately, Shannon had not managed to crawl out. I tried not to look, but I could see her body in the flames. Roy later told me he had shot her when he couldn’t get close enough to save her and it was clear she was not going to get free.

  We have no idea who those three men were. We’ve seen no movement, living or otherwise since the ordeal. After a vote, we decided unanimously to continue on.

  We will move tomorrow. Everybody was pretty worn out from events. Plus, we buried Shannon and planted markers for Antonio and Trent.

  Tuesday, June 3

  Some sort of insane storm is pounding us today. It started before sunrise with a freakishly heavy rain. After about twenty minutes it was gone and the sun rose bright and hot. We got rolling, and in no time were forced to stop at a huge wash out. It looks like a scoop of hillside was unceremoniously dumped on the road. Going around is not an option. There is a steep drop on the right side and an incline on the left. All we can do is back track.

  Three more of those thunder and lightning riddled down-pours have come and gone as we tried first to dig out a path. That was fine until we unearthed a rock almost as big as the Hummer, which by itself might have been capable of getting over the blockage. The deuce has no chance. Next we back tracked. We finally reached an offshoot road that seemed to go in the right direction. Only it came to an end at some huge clearing that looks like some serious logging activity was taking place…back when that mattered.

  There was no signs of activity and the vote is to camp here tonight. None of the heavy equipment is of any use, but there is a trailer. We’ll bed down there for tonight as these storms continue to roll in about an hour and a half apart. At least we can stretch out a bit and dry off. We’ll try again tomorrow. We just seem to be lacking a lot of heart.

  Wednesday, June 4

  What I saw this morning still has my blood running cold.

  I was the first to wake up as a beam of sunlight came through a frosted window and pierced my eyelids. Very quietly I slipped from Meredith’s arms and put on my shoes and socks. Tip-toeing around the others, I carefully and quietly opened the door.

  I was grabbed suddenly; a rough hand was placed over my mouth. Huge arms turned me and I was face-to-face with Bill Steiner. He brought his hand away and quickly mimed the index finger to the lips in the universal sign for “be quiet”. Then, he placed his hands on my head and turned me so that I could see the huge open clearing.

  A steady stream of undead was trudging through the brush, branches, and stumps. Imagine every busy sidewalk scene you’ve ever seen of rush hour New York, now multiply it by about ten!

  We were against the trailer at an angle that made it unlikely we would be seen. Still, there had to be several thousand of those things. They numbered about ten or twenty wide and I had no idea how many had already passed. The tail end of their line was somewhere out of sight in the woods.

  I’d seen zombies follow something relentlessly. Even after losing the trail those things just continue on the path they had begun. If this was a case of that, I wondered if this was a cluster from Spokane.

  All I know is there were lots! Bill signaled me to go in the trailer and pre-warn the others which I did. One by one we all came out and simply watched. The “zombie parade” lasted all morning and well into the afternoon. Starting the vehicles would be folly. That swarm would change course and come for us.

  With them a few hundred yards away, we were actually in relative safety. Nothing caused any of them to wander our direction so…we simply waited. And waited.

  Once we were confident that they had passed, we had a lengthy discussion that revealed something we had once believed in to be utterly false. No place was safe. No matter how far away from society we retreat, those things can show up at any time in huge numbers.

  We will stay put for at least today and tomorrow to ensure that that horde has moved a good distance away. All of us are curious and want to go across the clearing to see the area that the zombies passed through.

  Thursday, June 5

  Went across the clearing. You could smell the stench from about a hundred feet away. The ground was not only trampled down, but bits of gore were scattered everywhere. Not just the insides falling out of open wounds, but entire limbs. None of us were so bold as to suggest venturing into the woods in either direction.

  One other particularly grisly discovery was of a couple of zombies in various stages of decay that must’ve fallen and been unable to regain their footing. They were nothing more than smashed pulpy remains. But, the resilience of the skull left the head intact. The eyes, milky and black bloodshot
followed our every move and the mouth opened and closed with the click of teeth. Nothing that a good stomping with a pair of industrial boots couldn’t put an end to.

  We returned to the trailer and spent the rest of today scavenging everything that we thought we might be able to use. Other than fuel, the best thing we nabbed was one of those big chainsaws with the yard long blade. Hopefully it will work. None of us wanted to start it up because of the noise.

  Maybe we’ll move out tomorrow.

  Friday, June 6

  We have two choices. We can back track to where we split and found the children the first time we made this trip and then hike it to the bridge with whatever gear we can carry. Or…we can make a run through a handful of popu-lated areas and hope we don’t get mobbed.

  The argument is fairly evenly split and this is one of those times I truly wish we had an actual leader. My concern is that we simply decide and get moving. After what we witnessed with that migrating horde of zombies, the folks at Irony are living under false security.

  Evening

  Well, it took all damned day and a perceptible rift that now exists between Bill, Caren, and Kyle versus Meredith, myself, Roy, and Jimmy. We are making a dash through a few small towns with unassuming names like Cabinet and Lakeview.

  In the morning we will reverse directions and then cut north. We do know that the roads we’ll be using are all but washed out. So, the deuce will be moving slow and we will need to take turns driving the Hummer out front in an attempt to clear a path.

  The drawbacks are being uncertain of how slow our progress will be. After all, the reason we didn’t take that route before was because scouting parties had indicated that a lot of debris—both from slides and fallen trees—blocked the way making it treacherous.

  Saturday, June 7

  I still feel phantom buzzing in my hands as well as my ass. My hands from a lot of time with a chainsaw, my ass from riding on the hood of the hummer as we make painstaking progress.

  To the credit of Bill, Caren, and Kyle…they have all worked hard and nobody bitched. We were a real team. Of course our progress did not come quietly and that drew out more than a few zombies.

  Tonight we are camped out in some sort of Forest Ranger tower. Jimmy spotted it when he was standing watch from atop the roof of the deuce while Bill and I were cutting a tree that lay across the almost indiscernible gravel road we are following. We made that our goal for today and reached it just about an hour before sundown.

  There is a great view, and we can see that the first bastion of what once had been civilization waits at the bottom of a long shallow valley. We were able to get a glimpse via binoculars with the waning daylight that remained, and there are definitely signs of movement. Tomorrow looks to be a busy day.

  Sunday, June 8

  Early this morning we were all awakened by the distinct sound of large vehicle movement. From our vantage point in the tower we were able to watch a convoy of twelve vehicles roll past and into the town we had scanned visually last night.

  We figured that this was probably a band of raiders or perhaps just folks like us. We also agreed to simply let them pass. That would’ve worked fine except the last two vehicles came to a stop on the road, then turned in and came to investigate the tower.

  We didn’t have much time to really plan anything so Bill and I grabbed our shotguns, strapped on our pistols and a few spare magazines and hustled down, taking up positions behind our vehicles. Jimmy grabbed three scoped rifles and went up onto the roof of the tower. Caren and Meredith also grabbed rifles, but they stayed inside with Roy and Kyle so that somebody could keep an eye in each direction.

  Both approaching vehicles rolled into the little clearing and stopped suddenly. Probably the instant they saw Bill and me. One of the vehicles was some sort of dune buggy with three people riding in it. The other was an old, beat-up Volkswagen bus. Neither was overly impressive compared to our military-grade machines. All told, there were six guys and two gals. They weren’t soldiers. Just survivors.

  One of the guys raised his hands and came out from the vehicles alone. With all that I’d seen from surviving humanity, this person was either very brave, very trusting, or very stupid. At least, that’s how I saw it at the moment.

  Without warning a shot rang out from above. The man walking towards us stopped, looked down and then fell back hard. In no time we were in a nasty firefight..

  Jimmy was pretty much the hero. At some point, one of the new arrivals tried to take off in the dune buggy only to catch a round in the face, slump over the wheel and run down two of his friends.

  About the time we were considering taking a prisoner to question, Roy yelled down that the convoy was coming back. Then he yelled something down that solidified things for me. These were the people Meredith had escaped from!

  They basically moved into position to surround us. Jimmy says he puts their numbers at no more than forty. So…about six to one with the odds in their favor.

  I give Jimmy the best chance to survive this. The best news seems to be that they don’t have any exotic weaponry. I can’t believe it’s come to this.

  Wednesday, June 11

  We did all we could. Held out and fought back. And in the process, we took out a lot of those people who did such terrible things to Meredith before that day she first joined up with us. It seems like a lifetime ago.

  Still, there were simply too many of them and not enough of us. I’d guess they lost half their numbers. But we did not escape—if you can call it that—unscathed. Bill is dead. Kyle and Meredith are missing. We all got separated when we broke south.

  Bill didn’t go down easy. The second day there was what I guess you’d have to call a charge by a big group. Jimmy yelled warning and we were fending them off as best as we could, but a handful made it to the base of the observation tower. Bill was on what we counted as a rest up in the tower with Caren, and of course Jimmy perched on the roof. I was on the ground with Kyle and Meredith; Roy was in the woods. All I remember seeing is Bill charging down the switchback staircase with pistols blazing. It was enough for Kyle and I to pop up and start firing. Unfortunately, Bill took about a dozen rounds to the body. He was dead before we got to him. Our one loss was bigger in scope than the handful the invaders had taken. That was when we decided to run for it.

  Just after dark that night everybody bailed and loaded into the deuce which was still miraculously undamaged save for a few holes which did nothing to hamper it. We roared out of there headed what we were sure was south.

  We drove as hard and fast as possible. There was no way to know where we were going. We simply turned off at random points on the almost invisible logging roads. Try as we might, we couldn’t lose our pursuers. Every time we dared hope, a pair of ghostly yellow headlights would waver into view through the dust cloud we left in our wake.

  I never even saw the section of washed out road. The deuce lurched violently to the left and seemed to hesitate for just a moment before toppling onto its side at such an angle that the wheels were practically pointing to the dark sky above.

  Then…we tumbled over a steep bank and into a river. All of the winter snow had piled up this year. Coupled with how only recently it had begun to warm…and there was a lot of cold water rushing down this river.

  Kyle, Meredith, and Roy were in the back of the deuce. I was driving and had Caren and Jimmy in front with me. We had the windows up. I don’t know how many people have ever tried to get out of a water-filled compartment while strapped in and upside down. I do not recommend it. Once the windows were rolled down and I got free, I made for the surface with all the choking and gasping you can imagine.

  The raging water was whisking me along even faster than I think we had been moving in the big vehicle. I was pretty sure that the coldness of the water would prove fatal so I kept angling for the shore. When I finally made it, I was on the opposite side of the river. Roy and Caren both made it to my side, but further downstream, Jimmy was on the other.


  Nobody saw Kyle or Meredith.

  Our pursuers must’ve seen the accident and been satisfied with the presumed outcome. We actually came away relatively uninjured. At least those of us present.

  Jimmy was able to cross early this morning. For the rest of today we will hole up in this rocky area we found. The rocks are high and flat giving us not only a place to dry off, but also relative protection should any zombies happen by, as well as a semi-concealed place to look out.

  While everybody is focusing on watching for any sort of approaching danger…my eyes are seeking only one thing.

  Meredith.

  Friday, June 13

  We are going to have to move. It seems clear that our two missing friends will not be strolling up to reunite with us.

  While water is plentiful, we have no food. Also, in all the events of the other day, we have one 9mm and seven rounds in the magazine, two baseball bats, and one long sword. Jimmy has the gun, I’ve got the blade, Caren and Roy have the bats.

  To say things are bleak might be understating it. We are moving south, following this river. It stands to reason that we should eventually encounter someplace that was once inhabited. We’ll re-supply there and try to obtain transportation.

  Then, we’ll return to Irony. This mission is a failure. Let somebody else go to that other compound and “settle” it. I just want to crawl in my bed and sleep for a month.

  I know I’m concerned about our little group and the chances of survival we face. That is probably the reason that all I can feel in regards to the loss of Meredith is total numbness. I can’t even grieve for her properly right now.