Surviving The Zombie Apocalypse (Book 1): Sanctuary (20 page)

The farm
was well off the beaten path, not so much as the eagle flies, but the way the
roads were laid out made it very difficult to get to, even harder to find.
There were no other refugees, no travelers. Another farmer did ride up one
afternoon on horseback to make sure the Robersons were okay, but he didn’t stay
long.

Michael
and Juliette were enjoying themselves too, not yet understanding all that was
happening. It was obviously too dangerous to allow them to run about, but there
was a fenced in yard that permitted some safe, and supervised, play time. Julie
was the most anxious. She did not like being so close to
Omaha
and was certain the zombies would come
marching across the fields any day. As a result of her worrying, Kyle agreed to
take Simon on a quick go and see drive.

Using
Kyle Roberson’s truck, they took side roads and then a dirt track that opened
up near the highway. It was rough going and required four wheel drive, but it
gave them an excellent view without exposing themselves unnecessarily.

“Only
three days ago when we went by,” said Simon.

Kyle
continued to stare at the wreckage. There were cars and trucks everywhere. Some
were burned out. Others had swerved off the interstate and crashed. More had
collided and were totaled. Many appeared to have run out of gas and been left
behind. There were zombies too, a lot of them, shambling across the asphalt.
For the most part, they stayed on the road as they moved without clear
direction, never stopping, never slowing. There was no sign of the living.

“I never
thought it’d be this bad,” mused Kyle. “In the cities, yes, after they showed
some films of what was happening, but not out here. What happened to all of
them? Not enough of those zombie things to account for this many cars.”

“It was
totally out of control,” said Simon. He had told his hosts about the incident
at the rest stop. “It was mob mentality, for many at least, enough I guess.”

“What do
you want to bet they just ran right down the road once they couldn’t drive any
longer? People probably stayed right there in open where the things could get
em. Damn pity, all of it.”

*
* *

“We have
to leave,” pressed Julie. “It’s not safe.”

“Not a
single zombie has come to the farm,” countered Simon.

It was
late, and everyone else was asleep, but after hearing what her husband and Kyle
had discovered, Julie was more adamant than ever about departing.

“You
said there were thousands on the roads. They’re going to find us. Hundreds of
thousands in the city too. We’re only forty miles away. A person can walk that
in a couple of days. How long for one of those wicked things?”

Simon
had no response, nor did he know enough to say if Julie was correct or not.

“Where
do you want to go?” he asked sullenly, after a drawn out pause.

“Somewhere
safe. The police, no, the military is going to have safe places set up all
over. We just have to find one. Then we stay there until they clean it all up.”

“I don’t
know Julie. We didn’t hear about anyplace like that before we lost the radio
and television, and it did hit the entire planet. I don’t think the soldiers
who survived are going to be able to get rid of all the zombies either, not for
years at least. There are just so many of them.”

The fact
it was worldwide was something he found particularly distressing.

“Well,”
she said, not conceding the point, “at the very least we need to get away from
the city. There has to be some place we could go that’s better than this,
farther out in the country maybe.”

“We have
electricity here and plenty of food. They’re farmers. They aren’t going to run
out. This is a good spot.”

“Until
people come like those we saw,” continued Julie, angrily, “like the ones who
killed that man for a fucking candy bar. Think they won’t be looking for an out
of the way place like this too, at some point?”

*
* *

Simon
never wanted to leave the home of Gloria and Kyle Roberson. At the time he related
this story to me, he still regretted the decision. Despite its location close
to Omaha, it was well stocked and isolated. Even so, Julie had been adamant to
the point of threatening to take the children on her own. In the end, they left
with a full tank of gas courtesy of their hosts, some extra clothes, blankets,
and a lot of provisions.

They
journeyed south following farm roads until they could go no further and had to
venture onto a highway. It was there that they encountered Stan’s convoy –
Cherie had been with that group from the start – and listened to his plan of
heading to the ocean. That seemed brilliant at the time, as Julie had been
quick to say for days following, and they eagerly accepted his invitation to
join. It was going to be a long, hard trip, but they had a goal. More
importantly, they were going someplace the zombies wouldn’t be able to follow.

*
* *

Over the
next few days they picked up more survivors, usually one or two at time. Once
they met and accepted a group of seven vehicles and sixteen people. But the
number when Simon first met Stan was barely over a hundred, and by the time he
met Jacob it had not changed much. There were significant losses.

Some
deaths were from bad luck or carelessness, but the majority occurred when stopping
to gather food and other supplies. With so many people, the caravan required a
great deal, and, for whatever reason, no one had considered rationing. Food was
being wasted. Also, quite a few individuals wanted this or that particular
item, and Stan did his best to accommodate them. He might have had a
destination in mind, but when it came to practical matters, he was lacking.

On one
occasion, Simon watched as they hit a Super Wal-Mart. The doors had been wide
open, and zombies were seen moving around in the parking lot. The team going
inside didn’t seem to take either of these facts into consideration. They just
grabbed shopping carts and started filling them. Simon heard the screams a few
minutes later. There had been zombies in the building as well. Then the guards
posted by the doors got frightened – to be fair, there was a large number of
the dead shambling toward them – and opened fire. This was uncoordinated and
rushed. They hit nothing. The gunshots did bring those inside back out to see
what was happening however. The entire affair had fallen apart. Deciding they
couldn't stay, the looting party ran for their cars. Two were dead, another
eight infected. The entire debacle could have been avoided, if only Stan or
someone else had planned it better.

It was
this lack of competence among the leadership that caused Simon and Julie to
leave the convoy and link up with Briana and me instead. They thought my
predictions about what they’d face at the ocean made sense, and while it might
still be doable, the odds of Stan’s group succeeding were distressingly low.
There had been too many mistakes already. They couldn’t take any more chances
with their lives, or that of their children.

While
Julie had decided to place all blame for Juliette’s death on me, and none on
herself or anyone else, or even to acknowledge it was a horrible event that no
one could have foreseen, Simon was not so irrational. He was pissed in general,
and I think he did hold me somewhat responsible, but that was a tiny part of
him, and it was buried. The bulk of his attention was focused on keeping what
remained of his family alive. He maintained, personally, that joining us had
been the right call at the time.

Chapter VI

The
twenty first day – three weeks and still alive, a milestone – found us driving
north on US-385. We were almost there, and I was becoming more and more
anxious. That we would arrive was almost a foregone conclusion, but would it be
safe in the
Nebraska
National Forest? Would we be able to
set up a community of sorts and survive, or would we become the victims of
zombies, possibly of other breathers? We’d already lost Juliette, and I didn’t
want to see anyone else die, although the way Julie had been acting that might
be a viewpoint worth reconsidering. Okay, that was a horrible thing to say,
seeing how she just lost her daughter, but the woman’s behavior was... trying.

It was
around lunch time that we reached the outskirts and what was an unusually clear
stretch of road.

“Briana,
get on the radio and tell everyone we’re stopping.”

“We just
filled the tanks a little while ago. Why again?”

“Check
it out. We have a big open area where we can see in all directions, and no
zombies in sight. Let’s stretch our legs and eat something, now that we have
the chance.”

She
grinned broadly – Briana has a delightful smile – and relayed the message. No
one protested, and we stopped in the middle of the road. Doing so still seemed
strange, and probably would for weeks to come, but with zero traffic there was
no reason to pull off to the side.

“Soup,
beans, or canned stew?” I asked, grabbing my largest pot. “We should have
plenty of time to heat any of these before something unpleasant comes by. Mary,
why don’t you make a fire.”

The
teenager was our resident firebug in training, and she’d shown a great deal of
talent and enthusiasm in this regard.

“I’ll
kill any zombies that interfere with my eating,” declared Lizzy. “I mean that.”

The
woman insisted on filling her belly each and every night. It wasn’t healthy.
Still, Lizzy had accepted our loose rationing system, albeit with a great deal
of complaining – she thought us amply supplied. However, this didn’t stop her
from devouring anything Lois and Mary neglected to finish.

Stew was
the consensus, and I opened one of the gallon cans we’d taken from the diner.
Those were ideal for feeding the entire group, and any leftovers were put into
Tupperware containers to be used as snacks until the next meal rolled around.
No one wanted beans. There was no shortage either. It seemed every time we
stopped for supplies, there was at least one can of beans to be found. Creepy.

“How
safe do you suppose it’ll be in the forest?” asked Cherie. She was looking at
the trees in the distance. They did appear strange rising out of what was
otherwise prairie.

“No
zombies here,” said Briana, between bites. “Probably won’t be many in there
either.”

“At
present, you mean,” remarked Cherie. “They do travel.”

“There’ll
be some,” I said. “Being summer, there would have been hikers and campers, and
people live in and around the forest. Still, I don’t think the numbers would
have been high. There are no big cities nearby, and the towns tend to be super
tiny with only a few good sized ones close by. The only thing I’m kinda worried
about is Mount Rushmore.”

“What
about it?” asked Mary. “Can we go see? I’ve never been there.”

“Mary,”
chided Lois, “not now.”

“I’m
sure we’ll check it out eventually. Not just yet though. It’s north of us by
the
Black
Hills
, and it would
have been packed with tourists. That means lots of zombies.”

“And you
brought us here,” demanded Julie. “Wasn’t one of my babies enough for you?”

“Mom,”
began Michael.

“Be
quiet,” she ordered, and he dutifully, or fearfully, obeyed.

“It’s
far enough away, with enough roads going in different directions, that I’m not
too worried about them coming down toward us. Besides, I intend to set up well
off the highway. Since they like to follow the roads most of the time, that
should help.”

I looked
over at Mary. “But all those tourists mean lots of food in the hotels and
restaurants, lots of campers and trucks and other stuff. No shortage of
Mount Rushmore
T-shirts either.”

“Zombie
coming,” said Lizzy. She was on lookout.

“Is it
wearing a Mount Rushmore T-shirt?” asked Cherie.

Mary
began to giggle.

“Wouldn’t
surprise me, but I can’t tell yet. It’s really far off. We’ll be done and
packed up before it reaches us.”

“The
Mount Rushmore area will be worth checking out for supplies Mary,” I continued,
“at some point, but I think we should wait for it to thin out first. We’ll get
things from the nearby towns in the meantime.”

“Here
you go Mary,” said Cherie, after she retrieved something from her truck. “For
you too Michael.”

Simon
looked at her in surprise and with an expression of gratitude that was
fortunately not witnessed by his wife.

Mary and
Michael both let out squeals of delight as they opened the bag of marsh mellows
and more when Cherie handed them makeshift skewers so they could roast them
over the fire.

“We don’t
have too long,” said Julie. She was focused on the zombie, and a few others
that appeared behind it.

“I’ll
take care of them if they get close,” declared Lizzy, annoyed that the bitch
would imply, consciously or not, that she couldn’t defend the group from a mere
handful of shamblers.

The
older woman scowled at her, but softened a tiny bit as her eyes drifted over
her son who was clearly enjoying himself. This might have been the first time
he smiled since his sister died.

It was
interesting. Here I’d thought Cherie was an extremely self-serving woman who
always put herself first, though in a rather devious manner that was not
readily obvious to the casual observer. Then she does something nice for the
children. But judging from the way she was watching Simon, through the corner
of her eye, it was more than likely she had thought this out from start to
finish with a clear goal in mind.

*
* *

The
delay turned out to be longer than anticipated. Mary and Michael were having
fun, and no one wanted to rush them. As a result, I joined Lizzy, and we took
care of the four zombies that were approaching from the north. On a lark –
sounds bad, I know – I took my .22. Hitting them in the head with the rifle was
easy, easier than with my pistol, but the shots were largely ineffective. The
first zombie took three bullets to kill, the second two. Rounds that tiny just
don’t do enough damage to the brain to drop the things.

Returning,
we found Briana had the atlas and some maps we picked up in
Canton
spread across the hood of the Jeep.

“The
highway goes right down the middle,” she said.

“Yeah.”
I’d passed through several times in the past.

She
frowned. “No side roads.”

“There
are tons of dirt roads, service roads, trails, and the like. They just aren’t
on a normal road map. We’ll take one of those. Hopefully we can find a suitable
ranger station or house or something to set up in. Then we can explore the
forest and find a good spot to settle permanently.”

“Big
place,” observed Lizzy, “or at least it looks that way. We should work fast.
Fall’s pretty much here, for
Nebraska
anyway, and it won’t be long before we
get snowed on.”

“I
know,” I agreed, “but better to take the time and find an ideal location than
have to move later and redo all the work.”

“Can I
make Julie dig some ditches?”

Briana
nodded. “I second that.”

“Say
she’s not standing behind me.” I had a sudden fear that all sorts of nastiness
was about to occur.

“She’s
way back with Michael, putting away the leftovers.”

“Yeah,”
said Lizzy. She slapped my shoulder, which was amusing since I’m a foot taller
than her. “We wouldn’t talk like this in front of her.”

“You do
that rather often,” I pointed out.

“Only
when she deserves it, although that’s pretty much always.”

“She is
getting nutty,” added Briana, “more nutty I mean. She’s going to be trouble
sooner or later. We have to do something.”

“Want me
to cast her out? Simon and Michael will go too. Maybe Cherie.”

“Cherie’s
not leaving,” said Briana, glowering at the thought. “She may be a slut trying
to get at Simon, but she’ll want to stay with us. You and Lizzy have proven you
can kill zombies left and right. You keep us, and her, safe. No one else does
the shooting, not really.”

“That’s
cause we’re the best.”

“And
because no one else wants to do it.”

“That
too,” admitted Lizzy. “Bunch of weenies in this group.”

“So, if
I can’t toss Julie without losing Simon and Michael, and I don’t want that
since there’s a good chance they’d end up dead, then the only alternative is to
kill her. Do you prefer a quiet assassination, or should I just shoot her now
and be done with it?”

I was
being sarcastic, and neither missed this.

“Nah,”
countered Lizzy. “I’ll be the one to get rid of her.”

“Funny,
funny,” said Briana, sighing. “I guess we’re stuck with her, for now.” She
emphasized those last words. “But I don’t think things can stay the way they
are forever.”

*
* *

“What
type of home are we going to have?” asked Briana.

We were
back in the Jeep, crossing into the forest and moving slower than normal as we
kept an eye out for anything of interest.

“I think
a fort, possibly old west style made of logs planted in the ground and bound
together.”

“Don’t
you think that’d be hard to make?”

“Not
really. We have enough people to make one, and we could build cabins inside or
possibly put it around an existing structure. A stone wall would be far better,
but that would take longer. It might be something we do long term.”

“Oh, I
want the stone, a castle actually. When I was little I always wanted to be a
princess.”

“I don’t
think I have the engineering skill or knowledge, much less the manpower, to
build you a castle, however much I might want to.” I reached over, and she gave
my hand a squeeze. “A tower we could probably do, and walls. More than that’s
either going to take a lot of time or more people.”

“Hopefully
we’ll find more survivors. It would be good to have a proper town, or whatever
becomes the norm now that the zombies are everywhere. Damn zombies.”

“I also
thought,” I continued, “that we could hit some lumber yards or Home Depots and
get fencing material. It might be easiest to build a normal six foot fence
right away. We could put that up in a day, maybe two, and it would keep the
zombies out while we did other work, at least long enough for us to notice and
deal with them.”

“I don’t
want to be protected from the biters by a simple fence, long term, but I can
see using it while building something better. It would suck to be there
hammering or sawing away and get bitten from behind. Worse, if you’re actually
bitten on the behind.”

“It
would certainly be a shame to have a backside as lovely as yours eaten, tragedy
even.”

No idea
why I said that. It just popped into my head.

“Really.”
Briana’s green eyes widened. “Tell me more about how nice my bottom is. Have
you been looking while I’ve been facing the other way? Naughty, naughty.”

I
hesitated. “I don’t think I can respond in any way that won’t have you abusing
me.”

“Come
on,” she pouted. “No taking away my fun.”

“How
about fun after we take that service road there, to the left.”

“Fine,
be that way.”

Her tone
promised the teasing would continue soon enough.

I turned
down the road and slowed even more. It was quite rough, and I didn’t want
anyone messing up their vehicle. All of us could navigate it, but I thought I
was the only one with skid plates. Those were a godsend when dealing with rocky
terrain.

“Where
we going?” asked Lizzy, over the radio.

“Well?”
prompted Briana.

“Not
sure. I think we’ll follow this and see what we find. We have several hours of
daylight still, so there’s time.”

“We’re
just exploring,” announced Briana. “If you see a possibility for the night, let
us know. I for one would rather sleep in a building than in the Jeep.”

“I agree
there,” laughed Lizzy.

Most of
the radio conversations were between Lizzy and Briana. Cherie rarely spoke, nor
did Simon. That was just as well. I didn’t particularly want to hear Julie’s
input or opinions all day long. They were universally negative and generally
insulting.