Barren Fields (21 page)

The island is too rocky to dig a grave, so they brought his body to the shore and took him out on the sailboat to give him a burial at sea like all of the other friends they lost.

They spent the next few days taking turns reading the notebook to each other. He wrote about their whole adventure, the highs and the lows. The last ten pages he filled with descriptions of the pain he was going through and his sorrow at first discovering blood in his stool. On that entry, he wrote that he probably had a week left to live, and he died on the sixth day after the note.

In his final entry he wrote that he was happy with his decision not to tell them what he was going through. He didn’t want to burden them with the constant thought of him dying. He knew they would miss him when he was gone and wanted to continue enjoying their final days together instead of becoming a poster boy of pity and pain.

George was a good man and a good friend. It was another week before Frank and Keith pulled out the card table the three of them had spent so much time at together. That night was spent with anecdotes about George and life. Only two hands of cards were played.

*

Time continued to stretch and the fun repetition of their activities turned into monotony and boredom. Cabin fever was setting in just in time for spring to arrive. The calming waters allowed them to once again head out on the sailboat and see the world. The coast was still full of the infected. Keith and Frank both thought they should have died out by now.

One bright note was discovering someone alive in Oregon that has become their regular radio pal. Frank made contact with a woman named Katherine on the Ham radio, and she knows who Eddie is. The bad news is she hasn’t seen him since the first day of the collapse. It was still nice being able to speak with someone and get a perspective of what is happening on land. Not much of it is good, although Katherine says her group stays mainly on lockdown on a secluded property. She is always vague about her location, as if Keith and Frank could run to her house and knock on the door. The caution does make sense, though. Anyone could be hearing the conversation they are having if they tune in to the right frequency.

Chapter 18

The Rescue?

Grants Pass, Oregon.

Present Day.

It is approaching dawn and nearly a hundred of the ranches’ current occupants are gathered outside the main house to find out if they can participate in the rescue. There are a mixture of reasons the people in this group have for wanting to go. Some are wanting to rescue their friends. Some are afraid things will fall apart if Eddie and Simone don’t return. Others are just bored out of their minds at the ranch after living almost a year with the adrenaline of always being in danger. There is also a group wanting to make sure Eddie and his wife don’t return.

“Not everyone will be able to go today, but we will still take a sizeable force to deal with however many infected we run into,” Arthur calls out to the crowd. “We will be taking ten trucks and forty people.

“You could fit a lot more of us than forty in ten trucks,” someone calls out.

“Yes,
we can
, but we won’t. If the numbers of running infected in Grants Pass were the same as they were a few days ago, then we could get by during the day with a much smaller group. However, things are worse. Our problem is that we don’t know how much worse. It could be so bad that even the forty people that go might be in danger of not returning.” Arthur pauses to look around before going on. “You have to understand that if you are chosen to go, even though you will be with a large group of shooters, you might be riding to your death.”

“That’s an even better reason to take more people,” another person calls.

“We did think of that. However, if the situation is so bad that forty people can’t make it out of the city, then an extra ten or twenty people probably won’t make much difference either. It is either safe enough for forty or it isn’t safe enough for anyone.”

“This isn’t just a rescue mission either,” Donald says. “If we are able to clear areas safely then we are going to take this opportunity to pick up as many camper trailers as we have running vehicles, so ten campers. Those of you that aren’t leaving in thirty minutes should prepare your gear as if you were going, because if everything works out, we may send a second group out to get more campers after the first group returns.”

“I’ll be calling out the names that I decided can go,” Arthur states and starts calling names.

Jeremiah isn’t very happy to see Arthur deciding who will and won’t be going. He thought everyone that wanted to go would be able to. He had arranged with several of his men that they would go out and try to kill Eddie instead of allow him to come back to the ranch. Fortunately, his brother brings up the point of freedom to travel quite forcefully with Arthur.

“I thought we were free to do what we think is right on this ranch? Why are you telling us who can and can’t go? We have eight working vehicles just among my group, and I think I will go whether you say I can or not,” he says fiercely to Arthur and the crowd. “Don’t think you can exclude us just because we aren’t from your original ranch group.”

“Please calm down, Isaac,” Arthur says in a placating manner. “Anyone that wants to go is free to do so, of course, but I spent a few hours last night splitting people up based on their skills to make sure we didn’t send all of our bakers or mechanics or nurses into danger at the same time. For instance, Isaac, you are on the
don’t send
list not because you aren’t an original ranch member, but because you are your group’s leader and we can’t have our group and your group both potentially lose their leader. You can go if you want, but I would hope that you don’t put your people, and frankly the rest of us, in that position. If I don’t call on someone and you are dead set on going, please check with me first and I can ask one of the people with your particular skill set to stay behind on your behalf.”

“You could have mentioned that first,” Isaac says a bit embarrassed and receives some good natured chuckles that break in the tension.

“I’m good at getting things done on the ranch, tools and equipment. I never said I was good at dealing with people,” he offers, causing more chuckles and a few outright laughs, and then he continues with the list.

Jeremiah is surprised when his name gets called and is pleased when two men of his trusted group also make the cut. This could be the opportunity he needs to take out Eddie Keeper and his wife. Unfortunately, the seating arrangements for each vehicle have also been decided. Jeremiah has been separated from his men because, like himself, each of them have experience with hooking up and towing camper trailers. He doesn’t have time to make new plans before they leave, but each of his men nod at him and at each other to signify they know what to do if given the opportunity.

The trucks leave the ranch and drive into an uncertain fate as the morning grows brighter, and the sun is fifteen minutes from rising.

*

“Simone, wake up. It’s getting light enough to kill some of them,” I say looking out at mob of infected that are circling or just hanging out near the building we are on.

“How many are there?” she says with her eyes closed and refusing to move.

“Take a look. It’s about fifty, I think. If the damn things would stay still I could get an accurate count.”

“I guess we’re not waiting for a rescue party then?” she asks still not wanting to get up.

“The more we kill the safer it will be for anyone that comes for us or the missing scavenger team. I don’t want anyone driving in here to have fifty of these bastards jump on their trucks like they did to us last night.”

“Okay fine, I’ll get up, but let me pee first.”

“I think my shoulder will be fine now, so you can keep that stuff away from me,” I say jokingly.

“You’re in a good mood this morning. Why is it you are so cheerful? I feel like crap.”

“I think it’s the bite. I got a fresh batch of Zeus into my system, so I’m feeling kind of numb and invincible.”

“All right, Hercules. I’m all done, so you can start your rampage,” she says smiling at me while pulling up her pants.

I walk up to Simone and kiss her. “I think Hannah is alive. I think that was her shooting last night.”

Simone smiles back at me, and I step away to begin shooting at the people waiting for breakfast to fall off the roof.

“We only have twenty three rounds to shoot, so I need to clear the area around the truck to get more ammo. Let me do all the shooting. I plan on taking slow shots and let these sickos know that if they hang around they will all be eating pavement.”

My first shot kills a man by the truck that was trying to climb up to us. The shot gets all of the others attention and about ten of them move closer to the truck to attempt their own climb.

“Is that how you cleared the infected out of the area when your group went in?” Simone asks.

“Yeah, pretty much. Our shots were slow and deliberate, and after a while, you could see the infected moving off to try and find easier prey. These things don’t like dying any more than we do apparently.” I shoot one that managed to climb into the truck bed and it falls into the small crowd of them below causing that section of bodies to stumble backward.

“Oh my God! They are looking at the one that fell?” Simone says while pointing.

The infected are working through the problem before them. They see that one of their own has been killed, and they are hesitating to continue their assault on the truck.

“Now watch this, Simone. I’ll try to get them to back up.”

I take careful aim and kill three more infected that are six feet away from the truck. The remaining infected look at the fallen zombies and back away. All of them are now at least six feet away.

“See, they still understand distance and are trying to get outside of the kill zone. You know what this means, don’t you?”

“Yes, but what do you think it means?” she asks not completely aware of what could be going through his head at the moment and braces for him to tell some sick or corny joke.

“It means these faster infected have either retained more of their humanity than the slower ones did or the parasite is able to control them to a much finer degree using the former cognitive functions of the host. I have to assume for the sake of my own sanity that the human side of them is gone forever, and they are just brain dead eating machines.”

“Okay, that’s what I was thinking too, and if they’re not?”

“If they’re not then I’ll feel worse about killing them at the end of the day, but they are still just people trying to eat us if that’s the case. Unless one of these things starts speaking or holds up a white flag one day, I’m going to assume that they aren’t running up to me to give me a hug.”

With a shake of my head and a shrug, I start shooting at the crowd again, which is starting to edge back in closer to the truck. Four rounds later my pistol slide locks back. It’s empty, so I switch to my shotgun. The blasts from it are louder and more devastating to look at for everyone involved. The infected are retreating back to the road, and while a few are still just backing away, most of the others are already running away in the opposite direction trying to find easier food or trying to get to safety.

I feel pain with each shot now, like I did several days ago in the city, when we first saw the infected behaving in such a careful way. As dangerous as these things still are to everyone, I feel like I’m a poaching hunter that isn’t just killing one or two lions, but I’m killing the whole pride just for fun. Of course it isn’t a fair analogy, because I wouldn’t feel the same remorse if a whole pride of lions was a threat to my family. The difficulty is that these were once regular people, and by their new behavior, maybe they still are.

There are seven shotgun shells remaining, and I load four into Simone’s gun and three into mine.

“I’ll jump down to the truck and lift the ammo bag back up to you,” I say right before I jump down.

Only one of the infected at the road makes a run for me. The rest seem content to wait and watch to see what will happen, and not so surprisingly, when Simone kills the runner as it approaches, the rest of the infected at the road turn away and run back toward the city.

*

When the group of trucks reach the edge of Rogue River they are greeted with a small crowd of the infected that were drawn to the road by the vehicles passing through last night. The people in the first four trucks are only able to stop and wait while fifteen infected surround them in an attempt to get at the tasty people inside. Everyone except the drivers from the last trucks step out and start shooting the infected as they walk up to the front of the line. In less than four minutes all of the infected that surrounded the first trucks are dead, and several more that were attracted by the shooting also lay dead in the road or off to the side.

Arthur even organized the placement of the trucks for their drive into Grants Pass based on people’s abilities, and this first encounter proved how vital his planning is to the group. The best shooters were made to ride in the rear vehicles for encounters like the one they just had. As a result, even with the infected pressing against and trying to climb onto the first four vehicles, there were no close calls or errant shots going through a window.

The shooters of Eddie’s ranch have spent the last eight months practicing. Every day there was practice, even during the winter months, and often indoors. They would usually use the airsoft guns in one of the houses, but it wasn’t odd to find them shooting a pellet rifle for practice in the bunkhouse. In the riding stable, a pulley system was set up for targets to give them motion. Someone would run the lines making the targets move erratically and the others would practice.

The only time shooting dropped off was in the month after the huge attack. People weren’t sure then if it was worth fighting for their existence anymore. Slowly, people started to practice again, and as soon as each person took their place behind a gun, they remembered the comfort and security it can provide when pulling the trigger. Eddie mentioned to Simone after that experience that he will make daily target practice a requirement immediately following any tragic event at the ranch to help rebuild people’s confidence. The constant practice and reliance on guns as therapy has turned his group into exceptional shooters.

The convey makes its way through the rest of Rogue River and experiences no other crowding incidents. Several more individual infected are shot at or shot and killed as they attempt to approach the passing vehicles, but none pose a risk to stopping or slowing the group’s progress.

There are no infected to be found, at least no runners now that the trucks have made it onto the highway. There are two slow moving infected walking along the road away from Rogue River that don’t even seem interested in the passing trucks. The policy of avoiding gunfire to prevent detection has been decidedly changed with the behavior of the new runners. Now, any infected person that someone see’s should be shot immediately if there are enough people to deal with any extra infected that may be attracted by the noise. Now more than ever it is a numbers game that the remaining humans have to overcome. They can no longer wait for the infected to starve to death. The arrival of the runners has turned the disaster survival clock back to day one. Kill them now or they kill you later.

“What do you think of it so far, Erde?” Samantha asks their resident scientist and ender of humanity. “How are the runners getting here if they are staying in the towns?”