Infected: They Will Eat You!: A Story of Family Survival in a Zombie Apocalypse (20 page)

“There,” whispered Caleb, “behind the dark grey house, across from the swing set.”

“I see them.”

There were four men in the back yard, one on his knees, another was behind him gripping his hair and one standing in front of him pointing a pistol at the guy on his knees. The fourth stood ten yards away holding a rifle and was looking around. The guy with the pistol was yelling and waving his gun around then pointed it at the guy on his knees.

An infected turned the corner around a nearby house and the guy with the rifle shot it. “That’s the 22.” I said quietly, “Can you understand what he’s saying?

“Some. He’s saying ‘Where are they? Who is with you? I’m going to leave you with your guts hanging out for them to eat.’”

“Do you see any others?”

We looked around, “No.” he said, “There are infected heading toward them down the street but no people.”

“Yeah.”

The guy with the twenty two turned and had a conversation with the one waving the pistol then went back to his lookout job. That’s when another guy burst through the back door of the grey house dragging a woman by the arm and hair.

The man on his knees tore free and bolted toward her running directly into a pistol across his face. He was knocked flat on his back feet flying in the air. We could see blood streaming from his nose and forehead as he struggled to stand.

Caleb let out a gasp. His fingers had gone white he gripped his rifle so tightly.

“Take a deep breath and settle down.” I said, “We need to have our heads on straight right now.”

I could hear him take two deep breaths slowly letting each out. His hand had blood flowing through it now.

“Listen carefully, if you can’t do this just tell me, understand?”

“Yes.”

“The guy with the twenty two is yours. He is your primary. Your secondary is the one who was holding the guy. Understand?”

“Yes.”

“If I say green light you have to shoot them in that order. Can you do that?”

“Yes.”

“I have the guy with the gun and the one holding the woman in that order. They will move once we start.”

By now the pistol waver was standing by the woman pointing at her with his left hand pointing the gun and yelling at the man who was back on his knees being held by the hair again. He took a step toward the woman reaching for her when the man on the ground broke free again. This time a shot rang out and he fell to the ground clutching his stomach.

“Green…” I hadn’t finished giving the go before I heard
phut
and a blood cloud erupted from the back of the man with the twenty two’s head. The others froze for a second, enough time for me to put a round through the chest of the pistol waver and Caleb to drop his second target.

The man with the woman pulled her in front of him to shield himself. He however, did not know from which direction the shots were coming so he spun her around eventually pulling a knife and holding it to her throat. He started yelling and we heard a car start in front of the house. He turned and started to run stumbling with the struggling woman and falling to the ground. He got up but two bullets laid him flat.

The car came screeching around the corner on our right and crossing in front of us. Caleb and I opened up shattering windows and hitting the rear tire. Even so the car kept going squealing and screeching and attracting the attention of infected everywhere.

Caleb and I were still for a couple minutes waiting and watching for any movement, the last thing we needed was to be surprised by a lingering bad guy. When two infected appeared heading toward the bodies we started moving going cautiously taking cover behind houses and sheds only shooting the infected when they reached the back yard of the grey house.

When we got close enough we could see blood on the woman and a knife sticking out of her chest. The man lay with his eyes open dead. I motioned toward the door the man brought the woman through, Caleb nodded and we took off. The house was empty but the area was filling with infected drawn by the noise of the car or the smell of fresh blood, either way it was time for us to go.

“We don’t know who else is around, if anyone else is around or where that guy was heading. We do know that he’s not a nice guy and if there are others they are probably not nice so now we have to be extra careful. Let’s get back to the truck and go home so we can get out of here.”

With that we took off for the woods stopping once when infected passed. “Let them go.” I told Caleb.

“No trail.” he returned.

Once in the truck we eased to the road as quietly as possible, having a parade of infected follow us was the last thing we wanted. We were turning toward home when we heard the whine of a motorcycle.

“Bike.” Caleb said.

“Coming fast.” I added and mashed the gas shooting straight across the road then taking a quick right.

The bike sped past and we could hear the sound of other vehicles coming behind it. I pulled into the driveway of the nearest house “Get behind the wheel and pull it into the garage if you can.” I instructed as I exited the truck. The garage door was locked so I ran down the street trying each. “
Finally
.” I said to myself as I raised the door.

Caleb slowly backed out of the driveway he sat in and into the yard across the street then eased his way three housed down, pulled into the garage and turned the truck off as I shut the door and locked it.

“Let’s make sure this house is clear.” I said, “then we need to call home.

-——————————————

“I don’t know when we’ll be home. We heard the bike come back a few minutes ago but I don’t think we should move anytime soon, over.”

We sat in an upstairs bedroom watching out the windows through sheers. It was good concealment but if we were found being trapped in a house could be fatal.

“Should we come and get you? over.”

“No, you stay put. Stay inside and be ready in case….in case of anything, over.”

“OK. Keep us informed and be careful. I love you, over.”

“We love you too, out”

Caleb and I sat there watching and waiting. We raised a window just enough to be able to hear the outside sounds. There were motorcycles and other vehicles driving around the area presumably looking for us.

“I wouldn’t want to be on a motorcycle.” Caleb said as he fiddled with his rifle.

In making our escape and hiding I had forgotten what we had just been through, my son had just shot someone, not an infected but a living person. “Hey, we had to do it. We had to try and save them.”

“I know, just sucks that she’s dead anyway.”

“Yeah, the others were bad guys, they chose their actions and what happened, those two didn’t. We need to make sure we are careful and get out of here.”

We sat silently for a few more minutes. “We’ll wait for dark then start back. They may be watching the roads and bridges so we’ll leave the truck and go on foot. Get some rest.”

Caleb said nothing just looked out the window then got up walked to the bed, laid down and curled up.

-——————————————

“Check in, check in….one one, over.” I said on the radio. We had to start being more careful now, we didn’t know if they were listening in or not. ‘Check in’ was code for no names and listen. ‘One’ repeated was respond then stop and listen.

“Roger, over.” it was Jesse.

“Go purple, over.” I gave instructions to switch channels.

“Roger, over.”

I switched to the appropriate channel and counted to ten. “Check in, check in, over”

“Roger, over.” Christine was on now.

“We are check plus five. Use chart rotation, copy, over.” These were instructions that we were now going to check in every thirty-five minutes instead of every thirty minutes and to switch channels based on the color chart we had posted on the wall. After each conversation we would change channels and be ready for the next time.

“Copy, over.”

“Grey, copy, over.” Grey was code for I’m going to talk nonsense to confuse. Like fog it’s hard to see through, and how the sun burns the fog away I would let them know when I was done with code.

“Copy, over.”

“The package is on the bank ready for pickup. Oak, four hours ‘till the track meet. Copy, over.” Wood and tree terms were code for real information about the speaker. Metals were used to give instructions to the other person. We had worked codes out as games during out evenings and down times they were written at home I hoped I remembered everything correctly.

“Copy, over.”

“Fine. Yes. Grey, undergrowth and mud. Watch underwater obstacles. Ready sunshine? over.”

“Ready, over.”

“Marie, Bill & May, Ben, Sydney, Carol, copy, over.” I had just given her our rout home using our friends’ houses as reference points.

“Copy, over.”

“One, four, three, out.”

Caleb had fallen asleep almost immediately after laying down and was asleep when it started to get dark. The sounds of cars and motorcycles had stopped around dusk. I tried to keep track of each one by its sound and follow their movement and was fairly certain that all that had driven west had, at some point, headed back east. That didn’t mean that people hadn’t been dropped off or that some had gone a different route or that I missed something. In any case I felt it was time to leave.

I sat down on the bed next to Caleb and put my hand on his shoulder. He opened his eyes and looked up “Hi daddy.”

“Hi bud, it’s time to go.”

He sat up and rubbed his eyes.

“Hungry?” I asked. He just nodded. “Here, eat this and drink some water. We’ll get going in about ten minutes.” I handed him an energy bar went back to the window.

“I haven’t heard any cars in about an hour. We have a check-in in two minutes.”

I sat quietly by the window, Caleb walked over and stood behind me looking out. “Clouds, no moon, that’s good.” he said.

“Check in, check in…one, one, over.”

“Roger, over.”

“Package delivery Jesus, thirty, over.”

“Copy, over.”

“Roger, out.”

“Let’s get moving.” I said standing up, “Check the windows.”

There was nothing outside that alarmed us so we slipped out the back door and started moving. We would be going through a mix of residential, business and wooded areas, to our advantage even the business and residential sections included trees and undergrowth especially the first three or miles.

We made a habit of moving two or three hundred yards then stopping to listen and catch our breath. It was humid and we were drenched with sweat. The terrain was up and down with hills and small creeks that we could step across. It all took its toll and by the time we reached our first main road crossing we were ready for a rest.

“That was the only hilly part.” I puffed as I drank some water.

“Good.” Caleb responded.

“We’ll be in residential areas now ‘till we reach the creek. Not sure how we’ll cross, I’d rather not have to walk through it and I think the bridges will be too dangerous.”

“We can wade across.”

“I’d rather not. Wet shoes and pants can make more noise and leave tracks. We probably will but I’d like another option. Let’s see what we have here.”

“What was that?!” Caleb said excitedly raising his rifle.

“What?”

“I saw something move. It was fast.”

“Deer?”

“I don’t think so but it was big. It went that way.” he pointed away from the road.

We watched and listened but there was nothing.

“Could it have been a person?”

“Yeah, maybe, but it was fast.”

We looked around some more then turned our attention to crossing.

Fairfield road was just two lanes but it was straight and the shoulders were wide. We had a forty yard open span to cross before we were in the trees again. If someone was positioned at either end we could be seen. If they were midway we’d be in rifle range.

“Stay low, keep on my left and keep pace with me. If I were set up here I’d be up there.” I pointed to my right, “On go, one, two, three…go.”

We took off moving as quickly as we could in our crouched position until we reached the trees on the opposite side and knelt down looking each way. Either there was no one there or we were not seen. Off we went again.

We were late in getting to Jesus & Marie’s and once inside I called home.

“Check in, over.”

“Roger, over.” Christine’s voice responded.

“Fine. Marie OK. Gone in five, over.”

“Roger, over.

“Out.”

We sat and rested and drank for three of four minutes without speaking. I was formulating a plan to cross the creek and didn’t see any good way to do it.

“We need to avoid the bridges, not even cross in site of them. If we go toward the river there are some shallow areas but we have to go an extra mile to reach it then cross the beltway or go along the river. That will lead us to that pack of infected by the truck we saw.

“We can go north of the beltway and cross but I don’t know what it’s like up there. I think it’s a swampy area and the creek may be deep.” I paused thinking.

“I don’t like going toward the river.” Caleb said after a while.

“Me either. I know a shallow place but we’ll have to go through more woods and it may be swampy.”

“I’d rather be in the woods.”

“Ok, let’s go.”

We headed north past Wal-Mart and under the beltway then down an access road that ran between the highway and creek. The last flood had redirected the creek at a bend making a twenty by forty yard stony island surrounded by two shallow branches. We could cross there entering the woods and make our way to Warrenville Road. We’d be coming out right at Four Mile which turned into Grampian. Once we were there we’d be on our home turf.

We were hot and the cool creek felt good. Caleb was up to his knees in places but the depth was easily manageable. The darkness and stones on the creek bed were the main issues in crossing. It was not speedy pace walking across the creek, if we tried to go too fast we were going to take a bath.

Once across the area was not as swampy as I had thought. There were pools here and there caused by the recent rains but the ground was more rocky and sandy than muddy. Flood downed trees made the area like a maze and we were at times crawling through the branches of huge Sycamore and Maples that lay in their sides. The crackling of sticks under our feet was a concern, even if the guys we were avoiding were not within earshot infected could be and in the darkness we could be right on them before we know it.