Surviving The Zombie Apocalypse (Book 1): Sanctuary (42 page)

“Zombies
got inside,” he said, in way of an abbreviated explanation.

“How?”
asked Steph.

Viv
looked like she was going to cry.

“We need
to barricade this,” continued Eric. “They’ll break through. Get me the hammer
and nails that were in the drawer in the kitchen.”

Someone
ran to comply.

“And I
need some boards.”

Steph
shook her head. “We don’t have anything like that.”

“What
about the beds. We can use the headboards. Those are big and solid, and they
might have boards under the mattresses too.”

Three of
them tried to brace the door while the others hurried to tear the beds apart.
They didn’t have the tools necessary to dismantle them normally, so there was a
lot of pounding and kicking before they returned with the headboards. These
were hammered in with far more nails than necessary, and Eric added some more
to be certain. There hadn’t been any support boards under the beds, just the
metal frames, but they took apart a bookcase and used its shelves and sides to
completely wall up the doorway.

“Will
that hold?” someone asked, once they were done.

“I think
so. We should block it up more, some furniture or something, just to be safe.”

The
zombies banged on that door since the restaurant was breached until the moment
we rescued them, never stopping, but they couldn’t get through. The spiral
staircase was narrow, allowing only a single person access at a time. Whichever
zombie was in the lead had lacked the strength to batter it down.

Unfortunately,
most of their supplies had been downstairs. With the apartments being tiny to
begin with, and cramped, they hadn’t brought anything up beyond what they
needed or wanted in the short term. In retrospect, that had been a mistake.
They soon agreed to strict rationing, going down to something like five hundred
calories a day and only enough water to keep them alive. Eric still marveled
that they’d had the strength to get downstairs and into the pickup when we
finally rescued them.

Chapter XII

The
zombie uprising began in the early morning hours of Monday, August 22. We
started construction on our settlement in late September. Now, I’m about to
fast forward to a week before Thanksgiving. Don’t worry though. I’m not going
to completely skip over two months. You will receive a summary of what happened
during the interim.

The
listing of days, regarding me saying the second or fifteenth day of the
apocalypse for instance, is coming to an abrupt end. This system was useful at
first. It provided a timeline of sorts and allowed for greater understanding of
how things changed. Additionally, it was fairly easy to recall what happened
when, particularly while we were traveling. However, once we were established
and started to build, the days began to run together in my mind. I can provide
a general order as to what occurred during this subsequent period but not much
more.

The
castle is complete. Hurray! We have a safe place to live. The name was selected
by the children – no arguing with them – and readily adopted by everyone else.
The walls are composed of an outer layer of cinderblocks. Rebar was inserted
through the holes, which were then filled with concrete. As a result, these are
exceptionally strong. The gap between the two layers was later packed with a
mix of gravel and cement. It took a long time and a lot of work, but the wall
is five feet thick as planned. Since we have so many cinderblocks lying around,
we went ahead and used some to create battlements up top. These serve as a
railing so no one tumbles off by accident.

There is
a single, large gate, originally discovered in
Chadron
and carefully carted back. It’s nine
feet high, twelve wide, and composed of thick iron bars. It opens in the center
which helps with the weight and allows us to use a large steel crossbar to
secure it. We also set an animal trailer along the wall that can be pulled in
front of the opening. This is to provide an additional layer of defense, if
needed.

The
residential units have been completed as well. They’re in a single row along
one of the side walls and are just as small, cramped, and miserable as
expected. However, each has a thick door that can be barred from the inside and
a large fireplace. They’re safe, and we expect them to be warm once the weather
really turns. I would like to work on something better in the upcoming years,
but these are more than suitable for our current needs.

The
common hall is located in the rear of the compound, directly opposite the gate.
Like the houses, and everything else, the building is constructed of
cinderblocks. It rises well above the perimeter wall and is the most
comfortable spot in the castle, equipped with a stone floor, large windows, and
several fireplaces. It’s also the place where most people spend their free
time. Next to it is a small bath house. While the majority have been taking
sponge baths inside their dwellings, this allows for a proper soaking.

The
final quadrant of our compound holds a workshop and the storehouse, both of
which remain under Larry’s personal control. A series of trucks and vans – the
important ones are kept within a fenced lot just outside the castle – contain
the overflow of goods and supplies. Lizzy and I have been hitting Chadron
almost every day, after it was finally cleared enough to allow easy entry, and
we’d been bringing things back in bulk.

Clearing
Chadron was not as difficult as initially feared. However, it was a slow,
grinding process. Unlike
Hemingford
,
we couldn’t simply drive in and shoot the zombies. There were just too many of
things, so we instead established a firing line in a nearby field and had some
people go the edges and draw the zombies toward us. We would shoot that bunch,
make certain all were down for good, and repeat. It got iffy a few times, but a
series of barricades and ditches ensured the shambling menace’s approach was
difficult and slow. That gave us the time we needed to do the job properly.
There was only one occasion when we had to outright pull back and drive off,
due to Lizzy being exceedingly effective and drawing several hundred
simultaneously.

Alec and
Steph teamed up as a secondary scavenging team. Whereas Lizzy and I, along with
Briana, Lois, and Mary, focused on towns and houses and stores, those two
specialized in farms, primarily regarding livestock, related equipment, and
animal feed. They proved to be quite good, and it wasn’t long before we had
actual herds outside the castle. Having grown up in the city, I do think that’s
somewhat funny to say. Anyway, there was a small one of cattle, kept primarily
for milk, and a larger group of goats, also composed primarily of the ladies.
We even had some horses. The numbers kept were based on what Steph thought was
most manageable, with an eye for breeding.

In
addition to ours, we freed each and every head of livestock we encountered,
cutting barbed wire, opening gates, and so forth. There were thousands of
cattle, goats, sheep, horses, donkeys, llamas, bison, and so on roaming the
countryside. We could round them up later if need be or just use them for
hunting. Add in traditional game animals, like deer, and we had no shortage of
readily available meat running about.

I’m not
going to get into the chicken coops too much, other than to say those birds are
disgusting critters. They smell funny. They make a lot of noise. They are evil
and peck one another to death for no reason I could see. However, the
availability of eggs is good.

Now, you
would think that with so much stored up in the way of canned goods and other
scavenged foods, having harvested corn and wheat and other crops from nearby
farms, premium beef all around, and living in an isolated, safe fortress people
would be happy. If so, you are wrong. Oh, and let me mention that we have
electricity. That means real lights, television, and even some video game
systems for entertainment. To ensure it kept running we installed a partially
buried, thousand gallon tank for the generators. They were not going to run out
of fuel anytime soon. For the first time since it all began, I was satisfied
with the situation.

I seemed
to be the exception. Whiners, the lot of them, almost all anyway. As to the
discontent, I will admit that part was my fault. It really was. The low morale,
however, was the product of individual minds. We occasionally spotted a zombie
on US-385, sometimes on one of the service roads. A few believed this meant we
weren’t safe, that a horde would come around the bend any moment to tear us
limb from limb and devour us. Viv was at the forefront of that nonsense. We
were as secure as a person could reasonably get. Damn woman was just being
stupid, and her fears had a tendency to spread.

The
second issue affecting morale, which should have been accepted and thus
disregarded, was learning that zombies are immune to the cold. Most of us,
myself included, assumed that when the temperature dropped they would freeze.
After receiving some light snow and a few nights where it plunged into the
teens, we discovered that zombies never slowed or even seemed to notice. As it
was, any extreme cold would cause us difficulty and leave our enemies
unaffected. Annoying, yes, but it could be dealt with.

*
* *

While
most of October and November was spent building, scavenging, and preparing for
the winter, there was a single event of magnitude which I need to share. It
happened during a raid into Chadron. There were plenty of zombies in the town,
always were. For whatever reason, the parasites favored the place or possibly
the roads leading there. I’m digressing though. Suffice it to say, while in
Chadron we always had to be careful.

Briana
and I took the Jeep Wrangler into town. Lizzy and Steph drove a pickup with one
of the animal trailers hitched to the back. As predicted, those proved to be
incredibly useful when making these trips. They are enclosed, so you don’t have
to worry about things falling out, and they’re low to the ground so loading is
easy. Having to lift things or walk up ramps was the reason we largely stopped
using U-Hauls and similar trucks.

Lois and
Mary normally went on these runs, but poor, suffering Mary needed to learn
algebra. As the weather grew colder, Cherie steadily increased the class load
for the kids and teenagers. Lois was never far from her little sister, much to
Mary’s eternal annoyance, so she stayed behind to help Larry with the inventory
or something. I don’t remember, but it was bound to be useful, important, and
terribly boring.

On this
excursion we were going to search
Chadron State College
and the local high school. They were
conveniently placed near one another, so it should have been easy enough. The
plan was to get writing supplies, paper, text books, and the like for Cherie’s
school. Some of the survivors also wanted notebooks or journals for their own
use.

“Zombies
in the grass,” observed Briana.

“More
like on the dirt. The grass is all dead now.”

“Stop
being so picky. At least the snow melted, mostly.”

“Still
cold,” I countered, “so bundle up.”

“Please,
I am way more bundled than you. You’re going to get sick Jacob, and then I’ll
laugh at you and withhold all sympathy.”

I didn’t
feel uncomfortable in the leather jacket I was wearing, but it was in the low
30’s. I was going to need something more substantial soon, probably within a
few weeks.

“Where
should we park?” asked Steph, over the radio.

I
shrugged. “Tell them we’ll set up by that statue thingee over there. It’s an
open area with some sidewalks.”

Briana
relayed the instructions, and we watched as Lizzy hopped out of the still
moving truck so she could bash a zombie with her tire iron. So impatient, but
at least the thing was taken care of. I left any other nearby shamblers to her
violent ministrations and opened the back of the trailer. We kept several
shopping carts inside, appropriated from a local grocery store. Provided the
ground was level and smooth, they made looting much easier and faster. That was
important you know. Efficiency is everything.

“Who’s
doing what?” asked Steph.

“Why
don’t you take watch,” I suggested.

She
nodded and climbed onto the trailer’s roof. Standing or sitting up there had
also become common practice. The person on watch was effectively out of reach,
or at least hard to get to, and had a good view of the surrounding area.

“Briana
and you can bring the carts,” said Lizzy. “I’ll take point. College first?”

“It’s
closest,” I agreed.

Out of
habit, I checked the .40 caliber automatic on my belt. Having found plenty of
ammunition over the past few weeks, I now carried eight full clips when
working. I also had the hunting rifle slung over a shoulder. I rarely used it
on zombies, but with humanity gone wildlife was beginning to enter the cities
and surrounding areas more often. Additionally, we’d been running into packs of
feral dogs, along with the occasional hog. Both could be dangerous, and it had
become necessary to cut back on their numbers. We even saw a lion once, way off
in the distance. I’m guessing it came from a private home, somebody’s exotic
pet. I’m not positive, but I think I read once that there were thousands of the
great cats privately owned and bred in the United States. A lot of them had likely
been set free by their owners when the world went to Hell. No idea if they’d be
able to survive long term.

“Now,
follow me,” said Lizzy. “I’m the expert here, so do what I say, my little cart
minions.”

“Sure
thing,” replied Briana, in good humor.

Steph
made herself comfortable. “Some zombies in the distance, heading this way. I
think you’ll have to kill them before you reach the doors.”

Nothing
unusual with that. Actually, the numbers seemed lighter than normal. It might
turn out to be a good day.

“I’ll
get them,” declared Lizzy, brandishing her tire iron.

I can’t
say why Lizzy enjoyed killing the things by hand. At times it was prudent, even
necessary. Still, no matter how careful a person was, she tended to come away
with some incredibly nasty stuff stuck to her clothing, and those stains never
came out. Lizzy always took precautions, covering her mouth and nose with a
scarf and wearing large sunglasses, but I was all but one hundred percent
certain that an actual bite was required for the infection to spread, that
nothing else would do it.

“That
one had a softer head than I expected. Damn, inconsiderate zombie fuck.”

Splattering
was an issue. Maybe I should find her a poncho.

We began
to scour the place, encountering only a single zombie inside, which was
dispatched and shoved out a window. We learned the hard way not to leave
rotting corpses indoors.

“Guys,”
called Steph. “I have a situation here.”

“You
need us?”

“Yeah
Briana, I think so. Some men just rode up on motorcycles, no idea who they are.
They killed a few zombies down the road too. One of them, a really, really big
fellow, used a sledgehammer, swinging it like it weighed nothing. I don’t feel
good about this. They’re coming toward me now, and they do not look right.”