Better Lucky than Good (Records of the Resistance) (20 page)

"Kevin. If we don't come back, do not under any circumstances come looking for us." Clay said to Kevin, receiving the vehicles key's from his outstretched arm.

Kevin nodded in response to Clay.

"During dinner, you had said that you don't have any special skills that would support this expedition. I'm going to tell you right now, that you're wrong. You're not coming with us, because you are most capable of leading these people should we fail to return. I gave Lindsay an envelope containing some instructions that you might find useful if we don't make it. If in two days, we don't come back, then ask her for them." Clay said, reaching forward and gripping Kevin's shoulder.

Kevin was momentarily taken aback by Clay's statement, sharing in common with Clay a disbelief in his personal leadership skills.

"Just come back... All of you." Kevin said finally, as Clay was seating himself in the passenger's seat of the sedan. Clay handed the keys over to Tim after having propped his shotgun on the edge of the car door's open window.
 

*****

The drive down the unlit highway had been a long and arduous one. The road had been littered with abandoned vehicles, presumably having had either broken down or run out of gasoline. Clay had instructed that Tim wasn't to stop unless the road was blocked, as it was their movement alone which was preventing any wandering infected from honing in on their position. It would be unlikely that any of the vehicles would contain anything of worth anyway; their previous occupants conceivably having emptied their vehicle's contents upon abandoning them. On several occasions, Tim had been required to ease the vehicle through rubble or along the shoulder of the road.
 

The most troubling scene which had been found by Clay and his companions, was encountered nearly halfway through their journey to the city. The roadway ahead of them had been strewn with the bodies of suspected infected, all of which were surrounding a pair of empty cars. Clay had stated that what they saw before them, was exactly the reason why they were to avoid stopping the vehicle unless absolutely necessary. Tim had been required to slowly drive the car over the sea of bodies which had littered the road, grotesquely bumping over the corpses of the undead and imaginably, a few of the vehicle's previous passengers.

Aside from the gruesome reminders of the outbreak, travel along the highway had been quiet. Clay had eventually begun to lead Tim along the backroads which would deliver the group to almost their exact destination. As a result, the party could avoid some precarious overpasses and highway off-ramps into the city that would surely be clogged with vehicles and debris.
 

The gravel backroads, although difficult to negotiate in almost complete darkness, had been free of any signs of infected. If Clay hadn't known better, it would have been easy to believe that the world was exactly as it should be, with the outbreak never having occurred. He began to wonder quietly to himself, if this had been what the early hours of the outbreak would have been like for many people. If they had simply carried on with their morning just as they had every prior day of their life, only to be fallen upon by a swarm of infected and beaten until they ceased to draw breath. Clay allowed his imagination to run wild momentarily until he was interrupted by the sound of Melanie's voice, and her arm which was lead by a pointing finger having streaked past his peripheral vision.

"What's that?" she asked hurriedly.

"That's a good question. Whatever it is Clay, there is no way that we're driving around it. I think it's completely bottlenecked the road ahead of us." Tim answered before Clay had been able to focus on whatever it was that had caught Mel's attention.

"Okay, throw the engine into neutral and shut the car off. We'll coast the rest of the way." Clay instructed, intending for their last known whereabouts to as far behind their true location as possible.

Tim obliged Clay's instructions, shutting the car off and leaving the quiet night filled solely by the crunching of gravel beneath the tires of the small sedan.

"Get as close as you can. When we come to a stop, Jamie, you're with me. Tim and Melanie, you guys watch your sides." Clay instructed.

Behind him, Clay could hear Melanie and Jamie both readying themselves, as per his instructions. The small sedan had maintained its momentum for much longer then Clay had anticipated, forcing Tim to apply the vehicle's brakes to avoid a collision with what appeared to be the rear end of a large truck, having stopped in the centre of the narrow gravel road.

"Let's go!" Clay said, throwing the passenger side door open and stepping out onto the dirt road, the moment the car had become static.

Clay held his position next to the front corner panel of the car until Jamie entered into his peripheral vision. Clay mounted his shotgun and began to walk quickly towards the large truck. Jamie mimicked Clay exactly, using his own peripheral vision to maintain his pace alongside him while still focusing forward in anticipation of any signs of movement.

"Stay left!" Clay said commandingly, indicating that Jamie should move along the left side of the truck.

Clay moved forward along the large cargo truck, which he now recognized as being a military transportation vehicle. The road to his front was strewn with the bodies of fallen soldiers, laying among the innumerable corpses of their undead attackers. His pace had inadvertently slowed, mostly due to the requirement of stepping over the bodies. Clay hoped in the back of his mind that Jamie's progress had also been similarly inhibited, as he did not want Jamie to continue pressing in his absence.
 

Clay was glad to see Jamie as he rounded the back of the truck, the pair having reunited almost simultaneously. Continuing their movement, a second large transport vehicle which had matched the first in typical military uniformity was directly to their front.

"Good, Jamie. Just like the last one. Stay left." Clay quickly instructed, intent on communicating to Jamie that he had managed to accomplish exactly what Clay had wanted, despite only being given the briefest of direction.

The pair repeated their previous maneuver, rounding the second vehicle again almost simultaneously. Like the first, the road had been peppered with cadavers. This time however, Clay had noticed not only the seemingly endless numbers of spent ammunition casings, but also the putrid smell emanating from the bodies of the deceased.
 

It appeared to Clay that they were reaching the end of the small convoy, as they came upon a smaller G-Wagen light utility vehicle, obviously deployed as the vanguard of the column.
 

"Last time, Jamie!" Clay said, continuing to push forward while maintaining his shotgun in it's mounted position.

After passing the final vehicle, Clay continued his forward movement with Jamie alongside him, until reaching a point which he had approximated to be thirty yards beyond the head of the column.

"Take a knee." Clay instructed to Jamie.

After Jamie did so, Clay followed suit, facing the direction opposite to that which Jamie was currently looking and affording him the opportunity to stare back down the length of the column.

"Stay quiet and watch the road, as well as it's sides." Clay quietly instructed.

The two crouched as they were for what had felt like an eternity to Jamie, but had in actuality only been calculated by Clay as having been only a few minutes. His intent was to catch anything that may have been attracted by the sounds of their movement or voices, and trapping it between themselves and Melanie along with Tim. Once satisfied that no unwanted attention had been drawn to their position, Clay began to speak once again.

"All clear?" he whispered.

"I got nothing." Jamie replied quickly.

Clay stood to his feet, almost immediately being followed by Jamie.

"Nice work. Let's head back to the car. The road is likely clear, but keep your eyes open." Clay said, continuing to whisper.
 

"Got it." Jamie's reply was again issued quickly.

Clay was impressed by Jamie's ability to work his way along the length of the convoy as he had, while having no formal training whatsoever. It became quickly apparent to Clay, based on Jamie's actions at the lumber yard and those that Clay had just witnessed, that he was quickly becoming an indispensable asset to the community.
 

"I've gotta say..." Jamie said, breaking the silence of their quiet return to the sedan.

"I've seen my share of Hollywood zombie movies... And every time I see one, I get pissed off by the fact that the survivors always seem to pass up on prime opportunities to scavenge some good equipment." Jamie continued in a whisper.

"I was just thinking something along those very lines." Clay answered.

Once the two had reached a point where Clay was able to see the forms of Melanie and Tim, he began to wave his hand, indicating that the two should exit the car and move towards his position.

"Alright guys, here's the deal." Clay began to whisper, as Melanie and Tim neared their position.

"Jamie has pointed out that there may just be some valuable equipment to be had here. I see at least one general purpose machine gun on that G-Wagen back at the head of the column, and who knows what else might be left." Clay said.

"Make that two..." Melanie interjected, pointing towards the field that had flanked the road to the right of the column.

"It must have swerved to avoid rear ending the truck." she continued.

"I'd be willing to be that that vehicle has GPM ammunition left to be had. From there, it's occupants wouldn't have had many opportunities to fire without endangering the rest of the column." Clay replied to Melanie.

"Tim and Jamie, I need you two to gather what you can. Including vests, ammunition, explosives, fuel... Anything you think might be useful. This column doesn't appear to be large enough to have been tasked with clearing the city. It was likely sent to blockade the road and contain any infected who may wander out. Up ahead is a bridge that Melanie and I are going to have to cross. I'd bet that they were instructed to blow the bridge should they be unable to contain the undead. They would need a fair amount of high explosives to blow the steel support beams." Clay said, looking towards Jamie and Tim.

"Consider it done, Clay." Tim answered quietly.

"When you're done, don't sit in the car or linger on the road. Pick a spot in the woods that's concealed, but allows you to still maintain eye contact with the car. We'll be heading there when we come back." Clay instructed, pointing in the direction of the wood lot which ran along the side of the road opposite the field containing the rear G-Wagen.

"Alright." Jamie replied.

"If we aren't back in twenty-four hours, you guys take everything you can and head back to the department store. Got it?" Clay asked, knowing his instructions would likely be less than well received.

"Not a chance in hell, Clay." Tim replied, quickly confirming Clay's suspicions.

"Tim, we have the trickle charger. If we're late, we can boost a vehicle and make our way back on our own." Clay replied definitively.

Tim withheld his reply for a moment, rolling Clay's explanation over in his mind.

"Fine." he said finally.

"Okay. Melanie, grab the pack. We've gotta move. The sun's going to start coming up soon." Clay said.

Melanie immediately took off in the direction of the parked car.

"I mean it, Tim. No lingering." Clay warned.

"Fine." replied Tim, as Melanie's footsteps became audible, crunching up the gravel road towards them.

Clay relieved Melanie of the pack's burden, throwing it onto his own shoulders.
 

"Be safe you two. Only use the guns if you have to. But if you can't avoid it and this location becomes compromised, you'll need to change positions. Take the car and move a kilometre down the road. If you aren't here when we make it back before the twenty-four hours is up, then we'll continue down the road." Clay said, whispering what would be his final instructions to Tim and Jamie.

"Got it." Jamie replied. "You two be safe." he said as Melanie and Clay had begun to walk back down the length of the column.

Melanie turned and waved towards Tim and Jamie, having to walk backwards for a moment to do so, before needing to abruptly spin back around to keep up with Clay.
 

*****

Although it was the height of summer, the night air felt cool against Clay's skin. The blockaded road which had prevented them from driving further towards the big city, had resulted in Clay and Mel having to walk faster than had been anticipated. The plan would become exponentially more complicated if they arrived at the city's fringe after day break. The resultant perspiration from their increased pace, served to cool Clay's skin.

The night, although dissimilar in that it was almost entirely blanketed in darkness, had reminded Clay of the evening he had first met Mel. The crunching of gravel beneath the soles of their boots broke the nocturnal silence with every step they took. It hadn't taken long before Clay began to notice the brushing of Melanie's shoulder against his own. Mel had begun to walk incredibly close to him as they followed the freshly graded gravel road towards the city. Clay began to wonder if her own memories of that first night together had resurfaced within Melanie's mind. Clay had maintained that everyone should continually busy themselves. In doing so, Mel had not the time to focus her recollections on the night she lost her friends to the infected. Maybe during this quiet lull in the chaos which had ensued, Mel had begun to dwell on her past experiences. It mattered not to Clay whether Mel had become frightened by the similarities, or was simply trying to stay close to him in the black of the night.