Surviving The Zombie Apocalypse (Book 1): Sanctuary (47 page)

This was
the first I’d heard of her as the possible murderer.

“Well, a
few hours after Julie ran off, I saw Cherie with Simon. She was flirting and
talking and checking on his injury, the stuff she always did, but more open. It
was like she knew she didn’t have to be careful anymore or worry that Julie
would find out. I kinda thought it was because Julie had run off, so I didn’t
say anything. Now, I think maybe Cherie killed her so she would win.”

“Just as
well that you grabbed Mary and ran,” said Lizzy, after a long silence. “Bitch
probably would have shot her, you too for that matter. And you need to know
that when I kill her I’ll be avenging Lois, not Julie. Julie stays ant food as
far as I’m concerned.”

“Fair
enough,” I muttered. I didn’t particularly care about Julie. She was crazy and
violent and would have been dealt with, somehow, had she survived. “You might
be right Mary. Just remember that Cherie is dangerous. We can’t take chances.”

“Now may
not be the best time,” I said, shifting to another topic, “and I don’t mean any
sort of disrespect, but I’m not waiting anymore. I can’t wait anymore, not if
someone else I care about might go away. Briana…”

I pulled
a diamond ring out of my pocket. I’d taken it from a jewelry store a few weeks
earlier. I knew her ring size – she’d told me at least a dozen times – and been
sure to find something that matched the number she provided.

“…will you
marry me?”

“Oh,
Jacob.” Her green eyes, already damp from crying, began to grow misty.

“About
damned time,” said Lizzy, “and there’s no disrespect. Lois would have loved to
see this.” She shook her head. “Say yes already. We need something good to happen
today, before I start screaming.”

“Lizzy,”
I sighed, “can you for once, just this once, shut up?”

“Don’t…”
She closed her mouth and gave me a curt nod.

I slid
the ring onto Briana’s finger. It was huge, gaudy, according to the price tag
unreasonably expensive, and absolutely beautiful.

“Yes!”
she exclaimed.

“Mary
and I will keep watch tonight,” stated Lizzy. She waited until we broke apart
before speaking. “You two can have some alone time – I don’t think either of us
will be able to sleep much anyways – but tomorrow you have to work like
normal.”

“Understood,”
I said.

“Damn, I
really do wish Lois had seen this.”

*
* *

The
following morning we held our discussions high in the branches of some pine
trees. I realize that sounds rather unusual, and it is. While the house seemed
a better place, none of us wanted to remain there, cooped up in the dark. So
instead, we drove back to US-385, parked the Jeeps in a sheltered gully, and
found a spot from which we could watch the highway and the service road leading
to the meadow.

“Cherie
never leaves the castle,” said Briana.

“Then
I’m going to go in and get her,” replied Lizzy, “and rip out her hair, her
fingernails, her heart.”

“We have
children in there,” I said, reminding them all of this fact. “We can’t go after
her like that. One, we’re too outnumbered to pull it off. Two, I’m not going to
risk hitting some kid. We need to be smart about this.”

“What do
you suggest?” asked Mary.

“I think
we’ll wait a few days, maybe a week. Let them think we’re gone. Other than
Dean, none of them wander about the woods much, not more than a couple miles
out, and now that Pamela’s been dealt with, he likely stopped that. Even if
Dean does keep on with his hunting trips, we’re on the far side. I don’t see
him finding us.”

“Just
wait for Cherie to relax and calm down then?” asked Briana. “And what, hope she
gets careless?”

“Exactly.
Let her think she’s won. We can move in and spy on the castle from a distance.
It’s in that big field pretty much surrounded on all sides by forest. We get
under cover and watch with binoculars. She’ll get back to normal, going out to
the cars and animals. There’ll be a chance.”

“Winter
is going to be hard,” continued Briana, “after we kill her and run off for
real. We aren’t prepared, not personally.”

“I
know.” Lizzy shook her head. “We’ll survive. We can always find a small house
in the middle of nowhere, fortify it, and hit some towns for food. Then we stay
put till spring. It’ll suck, big time, but we can do it. Hell, we can head back
to Martin. Tons of food and stuff still lying about there, and the area is
mostly cleared already.”

“We can
figure that out later,” I added. “We have time.”

“Not
good,” interrupted Mary. She pointed to the north.

It was
hard to make out – my eyesight doesn’t compare to hers – but it seemed that
several motorcycles were approaching, traveling slowly. I lifted my binoculars.
Wonderful. The riders were all wearing denim jackets covered in those dreadful
patches we’d been so worried about.

“More
coming up behind them,” added Briana. From her perch she had a slightly better
view through the trees. “Hundreds, I think.”

“Hundreds?
Everyone shimmy over so you stay out of sight. We’ll let them pass us by.”

“Shouldn’t
we climb down and hide instead Jacob?” Briana looked scared, really scared. “I
know we’re back a ways, but that’s an awful lot of eyes heading for us.”

“You’re
right. Okay, everyone down instead. We’ll hide in the thicket over there. We
can still see them, but we’re better concealed.”

“Can
maybe even run out the back,” remarked Lizzy, “if we had to.”

Lowering
myself to the ground, I helped Briana and the others descend. Then we sprinted
for the mass of underbrush. It was forty yards from the road with only a few
trees between it and the highway. The thorns would be a pain, but I didn’t
think they’d ever notice us.

“Mary,
you and Briana keep a general eye out for any zombies. I don’t want to get hit
from behind.”

“The
main group is, what, a mile, a mile and a half further back?” asked Lizzy.

“Something
like that. I guess the front ones are scouts or outriders. I don’t see the
point in scouting such a short distance though, unless they’re just looking for
obstructions or something.”

“Sure is
a lot of them. And… What the fuck are those things on their handlebars?”

I zeroed
in where Lizzy was pointing with my binoculars. “God,” I muttered.

“What is
it?” asked Briana.

Lizzy
closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

“What?”
Mary chimed in. “Tell us.”

“You two
remember to watch for zombies or anything else. Lizzy and me will keep an eye
on the road itself.” I hesitated. “They have human heads tied to the front of
their motorcycles, not all of them, but I’d say maybe a third. Looks like
they’re held on with barb wire.”

“That’s
sick.”

I had to
agree with Mary.

“It goes
way beyond that. These people are… I don’t even know. They did wipe out that
settlement, raping and killing everyone.”

Couldn’t
argue with Lizzy either.

The
scouts in front of the convoy moved forward, stopping a hundred fifty yards
away, opposite our position.

“What
are they doing?” asked Briana, bending down to speak in my ear.

“Taking
a leak. I think they’re going to just pass right through the forest on their
way south to wherever.”

“Damn
it!” snarled Lizzy, quietly so not to be overheard. The whispering did nothing
to hide her fury.

“What?”
I began. Then I saw Georgy Boy.

He
pulled off a dirt track south of us, crossed the highway, and drove down the
road leading to the castle. His pickup was full of firewood – I guess Cherie
thought my orders to accumulate a large supply were worthwhile after all. There
was no indication he saw the men, and the lay of the land hid the approaching convoy
itself. Plus, I could just hear his stereo, despite the windows being rolled
up. The volume was at maximum as he rocked to his tunes paying absolutely no
attention to the world around him.

“That
idiot!” exclaimed Lizzy.

“They’re
following,” I said.

“Looks
like,” she agreed. “What do we do?”

“We have
to help,” said Briana. “We can’t let them do what they did in Martin.”

“I know sweetie.”
More riders drew close while the main band continued its steady approach.
“We’re not getting over there without being seen.”

“What
then?”

“Briana,
call the castle and let them know what’s coming. I think of all of us, they’ll
most likely believe you.”

“Simon,”
she said, speaking into the handheld, “if you or anyone else is paying
attention, there are some raiders approaching the castle. They’re following
Georgy Boy in his pickup. We saw them from near US-385. Can you hear me?”

“Briana,
that you?”

“Who’s
this?”

“It’s
Larry.”

“Larry,
they’re wearing the same jackets as the gang that attacked Steph in Chadron,
and when we went to Martin, we found the settlement there destroyed, everyone
killed, even the babies. The bodies left behind, the ones who attacked, they
had those same jackets. It’s like a giant motorcycle gang or something.”

There
was a moment of silence. “I’ll tell everyone we might get attacked. Thanks.” He
abruptly severed the connection.

“Think
he’ll really do that?” asked Mary.

“Probably,”
said Lizzy, slowly. “He sounded like he believed us, or at least enough to not
risk it being a lie.”

“Then,
what do we do?”

“We have
to get back,” Lizzy told her, “and help, somehow. Not sure how. God, look at
that shit.”

My eyes
were drawn to an old Jeep Wrangler, missing its doors and top. The driver, a
woman, had a flag pole of sorts mounted in the back, but what waved from it was
a flayed human skin.

“Do you
think maybe the change that made the zombies did something to these people?”
asked Briana. She squeezed my shoulder.

“I’d
like to go with that theory,” I replied, “but I don’t think so.”

“Just sick
fucks who took advantage of the change to indulge themselves,” said Lizzy.

“More
than that,” argued Briana. “Look at them. Think that many would be together
from the start or get together so fast?”

“They
started doing what they wanted, found they enjoyed it, and it spiraled.”

“Doesn’t
matter Lizzy,” I said. “We’ve seen what they do. We know what they’re like.”

“What
about the back trail?” asked Mary.

“Which
one?”

There
were a lot of trails in the Nebraska National Forest.

“The one
down by the southern edge,” she explained, “that goes past the house with the
orange flower pots by the windows…”

“Through
the stream bed and up around toward the castle,” I finished. “Darling, you are
brilliant.”

The
barest of smiles touched her lips. Normally, Mary would have been grinning ear
to ear and giggling after receiving the compliment. I found my hatred of Cherie
increasing.

“Let’s
head out,” I ordered, “quietly.”

Lizzy
led the way, mostly crawling until we were out of sight of the road. We managed
to get to the Jeeps without any difficulty.

*
* *

“Stay
here while I take a look.”

Briana
slid into the driver’s seat in case we had to leave fast.

“Careful,”
called Lizzy, through her rolled down window.

I jogged
toward the highway, keeping to the trees until I reached a point where I could
see the service road leading to the castle. Distressingly, the bulk of the
convoy was already following it, and it appeared all of them planned on doing
so. But while the number of vehicles was high, the variety was somewhat
limited. Most of the raiders were on motorcycles. There were also a few trucks
and storage vans, along with a pair of big rigs. One was pulling a gas tanker,
the other a normal trailer. I had no idea what was inside.

I waited
long enough to see the last of them turn onto the dirt track before hurrying
back. “They’re going there, every last one.”

“We
won’t get there first,” said Lizzy, “not the way we’re going.”

“But we
come out behind the castle, on a rise, and in the forest,” I countered. “They
won’t know we’re there.” I looked over at Briana. “I’ll drive. You let Larry
know that he can expect nearly three hundred of them, and there are zombies
trailing behind too. Those will almost certainly show up.”

“Zombies?”
asked Mary. “How many?”

“Sixty
or seventy, best I could tell. They looked to have been following the gang.
They were back a ways, maybe close enough to see them, definitely close enough
to hear.”