The Reanimates (Book 3): The Escape (8 page)

Save The Date

We slept well with the word hope dancing in the back of our subconscious, like the sugar plums from a children's story. We were going to be speeding up the move by a little bit, but that wasn't as scary to any of us as we feared it might be. In fact, the direct opposite was true. We were excited to be coming home. For once, fear wasn't part of the gamut of feelings that hit us as we ran around getting ready to get the day started.

When we woke up, we were greeted by the sounds of birds in the trees over the creek bed. We dressed quickly so we could start on the work ahead. Trent had left the bus gate open a hair so we would be able to come back in, so the first thing we did was sweep for zombies that may have passed by our house and into our town. As it happened, there was one there. Matt drew his crossbow to take care of it when Trent stopped him.

"I have an idea. We need this place to be checked to make sure it is zombie proof, right? So here's what I'm thinking. Let's catch it, put it outside the wall, then try to lure it in. If it makes it inside, we'll know that there is a weak point to fix. Saves us the hassle of trying to think like a zombie."

"Man," Tyreese chuckled, "you're more twisted than I thought you were! Who needs to crawl around getting cut up on crap when we don't have to? We stop when something hurts, they don't. I like it." He clapped Trent on his shoulder, before he added, "But, Einstein, how do you want to move it to the right side of the wall? Are you going to be the carrot?"

Matt looked at the zombie, deep in thought. "In the fire department, there are catch poles that they probably used for stray dogs. We can use them to make it to go where we want it to go. We hook it around the neck and lead it out, like a rabid dog."

"Brother, I like your problem solving. I knew you had it in you, well, somewhere." Lucas joked.

"That's why mom called me son. I'm brighter than the average bear." Matt kept his expression totally serious as he delivered the line, but quickly after, he broke into a large grin. "Come on Luc, let's find them."

The brothers took off in a light jog to the fire department's building and quickly emerged with their finds in hand. Trent jogged towards the zombie to grab its attention, being the carrot after all, so it was focused on him when Matt and Lucas slipped behind it and slipped the snares on it. They wrestled the zombie out the front gate while I closed the gap in the wall. I used the bus as a ladder and climbed up on the shipping container. I slammed my hand against the side of the box to distract the zombie to look at me. The head moved in a swift jerk to face the noise. Milk-white eyes that obscured what color the iris had been, and a dark spot where the pupils leaked through the haze, searched for the sound until it found me. It reached for me with trembling hands; its torn tendons were flapping around the wrist like a frayed glove and broken bones protruded from the back of the hand at various angles, as it tried so hard to come close enough to grab me. I began to walk on the top of the container, dragging a foot behind me to make a loud clatter against the corrugated metal to draw it along and it followed. When I came to the bridge from one container to the other, sitting over many stacks of tires and sharp sticks with barbed wire entwined in them, I paused. I feared it was this type of fence that they would make it through, and I wanted to take my time with it. Tanya and Lacey stood on the other side making noises to encourage it to try for them. The zombie walked right into their trap and found itself stuck on one of the sticks, but it never did make through. I called to Matt to give me the pole, and when he gave it to me, I used it to push the zombie off of the spike. It slid off with a slurp sound, leaving black blood on the stick and running down the front of its shirt. It wasn't fazed by the latest hole in its side. It wanted to try again in the same spot, and I had to work at getting it to refocus. I have to say that zombies are definitely a tenacious bunch. Once it finally got a lock on me, we continued our little walk around the wall. We repeated this dance of getting stuck and unstuck over and over again, but the zombie never did make through to the other side. We worked hard at trying to lure it in through the bus gates, the point that Trent worried about, but it failed. For one and a half miles, we proved that the walls were enough.

I borrowed Matt's crossbow and took out the zombie once we made the full circle back to where we started. I was smiling super large, but Trent looked like he was deep in thought. I wondered what the problem was that he wasn't celebrating the success of the trial like the rest of us were.

"What's going on, hon?" I asked.

"Well, it's safe against one zombie, but what if it isn't safe against a herd of them?"

Tyreese over heard what Trent said, and added, "Well, it's not as though we are going to leave these walls unattended right? That was why we made the shelters at the gates, so someone will be on watch at all times. If a herd comes and we start firing on them, a lot of the herd is going to be thinned out before they ever are close to the wall, right?"

I nodded. "We could make a policy that if multiple rounds go off, it's an all hands on deck situation and everybody needs to come to the wall and take down zombies. By the time any of them reach the wall, there should be only one or two left alive if we have that much coming at them, and we could make sure that we report to the spots that are made of filler first."

Trent considered the idea and ultimately agreed. He started walking around the inside of the wall, studying it thoughtfully over and over again. As he was going around, looking for any major cracks in the wall, I watched him. While I was watching my husband, Lacey came to me. The look in her eyes said that she was concerned about something, so I focused my attention on her.

"Cali, first, I moved the cans of food that we found when we were cleaning out the houses out of my trunk and put them in the cafeteria, there's no point in transporting them back there when we are just making a turnaround trip. The second thing is we need to make sure there is a place for everyone to sleep that first night. Maybe we should go into the houses and find the clean beds and drag the mattresses and blankets over to the school." I had to admire her thoughtfulness, and I was grateful that she had the foresight to think of the sleeping arrangements. I would have been on the way to retrieve the rest of the group before it crossed my mind. I climbed down a ladder and found the guys and explained the project at hand. We had twenty-four people that were going to need a place to sleep. I wasn't sure that there would be enough clean beds, and by clean, I meant without gore from zombies or suicide on them, not free from the mountains of dirt that was just part of life. It was amazing how many people went to their beds to kill themselves. I reminded myself that if we found a few large mattresses, we would have the option of doubling people up. We also could take some of the beds with us when we cleared out Kristen's house, if we needed them.

We worked hard at the project. House by house, we pulled out the beds that were worthwhile. Mattresses always were the worst part of moving, and my body ached after only two houses. The worst part of moving mattresses to me was that they never had a good point to put your hands on it, and they flopped around at the most inopportune time. Stairs were a guaranteed wobble point and more than once, I was sure that I was going to go tumbling down the staircase.

Like a miracle, were able to find enough beds to make sure everyone was comfortable and we found enough bedding as well. The people of Wilsall had their winter sheets as well as their summer sheets, and the winter sheets were all stored away in the linen cupboards. It was very nice to find them there, because I sure didn't like the idea of sleeping on the dusty sheets that were still on the beds. We would definitely go down to the creek at some point and have the sheets cleaned but for now, we were going to be happy to have the warmer sheets anyway.

When we came across the gross mattresses, we decided that since we were already doing the mattress duty we would go ahead and throw out these ones as well, although since we didn't plan to try and salvage them, we had no problem with pushing them out a window. At least it would be one less thing to have to do later. We added those beds to the pile of the dead bonfire. It needed to rain soon, this pile of death was getting really big and really gross.

While Trent and I were dropping off a pile to burn, I noticed that in the distance there was a building. I pointed it out to Trent and we went over to investigate what we missed. I was a little confused over how we missed something like a building until we wandered closer and noticed that there was a fallen tree. It probably was hiding the building right until it fell.

The building was a church. We peeked inside the windows to see if there was anyone inside and found that it was full of the dead. I wondered if the people that were inside were people that used to live in Wilsall and went here to hide. In another window I saw that there were several cots set up. It occurred to me that this place was likely the place that was chosen to be the evacuation site for people to ride out the zombie storm together in the house of God. By the looks of all the people that were milling around inside, they let in the wrong person. There were so many people inside, including women and children, and my heart ached for them all. I checked the doors to make sure there was no way for them to make it out of their prison. They were stuck for sure.

"Trent, I know we're supposed to kill all of the zombies we come across, but I'm thinking that since these ones aren't a threat, can we leave them alone for now?" My voice was heavy and my shoulders were drooped in a defeated posture. I didn't have a clue why it mattered to me that we left these ones alone, but it did. I was on the edge of tears as I imagined the people inside huddled together, afraid of the monsters that were coming as they prayed for a miracle. It was obvious that the prayer was answered with a no.

Trent wrapped his arms around me and I put my head on his shoulder. "Well, you know that we can't just let this be. I think that what we should do is have Ty move the burn pile to this building. It isn't a church anymore, not with all of these trapped souls. When it comes time to start the fire, we will start it here, and make sure that there is nothing left here. We don't have to storm in and take them out if you don't want to."

I nodded in acceptance of the fate of these people. I felt badly for the lost people there, and grateful that I wasn't going to have to fight them. It did seem kinder to take the fire to them and free them from being trapped here.

By the time we had everything set up inside the school, it was the middle of the afternoon. It wasn't going to be possible to go back to Idaho and come back before dark. Matt and Lacey decided to go back that night though, and have everyone start packing up so when the rest of us came back to help move they would have a jump on the packing part. Fortunately there wasn't a whole lot to move, it was just the logistics. Those of us that stayed looked for more food in the houses and set up the net to fish with. Trent and Tyreese went hunting in the area around our home. We noticed that there were signs that there were deer and boar around so we thought if there was a way to have one ready for the move in we could have a nice welcome home party. I really liked the sound of that, welcome home. I couldn't wait to see the look on everyone's faces as they came into town. This was going to be the best thing that has happened to us since the start of it all.

Tanya and I realized there was no point in going back to the safe house tonight to sleep since we were pretty well set up in the school. We went up to the house and pulled all of the stuff that we wanted to have in the town, while leaving things that needed to be here like the beds for people that were traveling through. I still loved that we were going to have a guest house for the strangers that might be passing through, even if no one ended up coming. I liked knowing that we were giving back, if even in a small way. Besides, who knew if we would need a place at some point to house people that wanted to trade with us but didn't want to be trapped in our walls. I knew that it would be something I would want as an option.

After we collected stuff, we went back to the school and started cleaning up the cafeteria. It was going to be a nice little banquet hall. While we worked I pictured the looks on everyone's faces as Matt and Lacey told them that it was time to get busy on packing. I imagined that there were going to be a lot of happy people. Lucas went to work taking the seats out of another bus so there was a place to load up all the stuff from Kristen's. The bus that we took way back in Utah was still at th
e house, so we had a place to move people but I knew that there were enough belongings around that another bus could be filled.

It was obvious we were in late fall with how short the days were now. We called it a night at dusk after Trent and Tyreese came back, dragging a healthy sized boar behind them and I collected the fish net. We came up with the plan of getting up with the sun; we had to get back to Idaho. We ate a small dinner, not wanting to waste anything we had piled up for the others, before we went to bed. As I fell asleep, my stomach fluttered with joy and anticipation.

We were all going to be together again. This was our second chance. I prayed a silent prayer that we were going to be able to enjoy it, and be able to live happily ever after.

Moving Home

That morning, we piled into our vehicles to go back to Idaho for the last time. Tyreese stayed behind to keep watch on the place and to run the gates when we came back. He waved at us from the wall, and Tanya waved back with a wistful smile. We made an interesting looking convoy as we drove down the road together; a few trucks and a bus with no seats. It was funny to imagine the zombies that we passed as they looked on, and how we had to look like a meals on wheels truck that kept on going.

When we drove by the house that sat at the edge of the road, we saw a man again, but this time the gun was held in one hand with the butt of the rifle resting on the wooden porch. He wore a large smile as he waved at us. I wondered if that was Jack, or if the man was just someone who knew about us. Either way, he looked rather friendly and welcoming instead of hostile or defensive. Trent gave a wave back as we continued on the road. I was thrilled that they were more relaxed about us. It would be nice to have friends, or at the bare minimum, allies.

Even though I really tried, I couldn't force my mind to stop thinking of getting back home. I knew that it would make the journey longer if I didn't distract myself, but I just couldn't wait to see the looks on the faces of the group. I knew that they were already aware that we were on our way, but I knew that their excitement over seeing us all was still going to be glowing from every pore.

After a lifetime's worth of driving, and I'm still not sure why it always seems to take longer to arrive at a place than it is to come back home, we bounced down the road. Loose gravel kicked up from the ground as it made little clunk noises in our wheel well. We squeezed into the gate, the last of all the vehicles, and were greeted by a very happy Drew and Louise.

"Is it time to go? Are we moving now?" Drew asked, barely containing his enthusiasm. Nathan, Drew's ever faithful shadow, was following right behind and asked the same thing. I stood there, taking in the sight of my son. It felt like I was away from him for an eternity every time we were apart. I felt this spin of joy when it hit me that with this move we won't have to be apart again like we had been. I missed spending time with him. I hugged him tightly before I felt this small tugging on my jeans. I looked down and found Nathan looking up at me with an expectant look in his eyes. I couldn't stop the carefree laugh from slipping out of my mouth. It had been a long time since I felt like we were going to be alright. We were going to be free from the zombies and we even had a good thing going with the neighbors. We were good, and the feeling wrapped me in warmth.

I picked up my nephew and said to them both, "We sure are guys. Have you packed yet?" They both nodded.

Louise whispered, "They haven't slept at all with the excitement. Who can blame them? I didn't either!" She giggled like a kid. I saw in her that she was excited to be finally able to move out of Kristen's house since she had been stuck here since the start of the apocalypse. I felt bad for her in that moment, it occurred to me that she hadn't been home at all since the start of the apocalypse. All she had from there was the picture that Trent had rescued when we rescued the dog. I felt horrible that we lost Tesla. That seemed to be a theme of the end of the world, you lose more than you expected. I shifted Nathan to my hip and with my free side I leaned over to give her a hug. I admired her enthusiasm for this project. She refused to be a victim of the world's end, although I wondered if at night, when she was alone, if the mask of positivity came off and she let the tears fall.

I looked over the group of people that were almost dancing as they carried out their sparse belongings in grocery sacks and trash bags. We came in with so little, and were leaving with the same. Tanya and Trisha were herding Dalynn, Tomisha, and Abigail, who were dressed in their princess dresses that we had acquired at the kids clothes store all those months ago, out of the door. Their arms were filled with stuffed animals and, closest to their hearts, their dolls that they made in Scipio. I rarely saw the girls without those dolls, and I missed Mercedes all over again. Liam came running out of the house with a blanket tied around his neck, Superman style, as he helped move kitchen stuff from the house to the bus. Erin and Lacey carried out JJ's crib, filled with baby stuff like diapers and baby clothes. Raine bounced the baby as she walked in circles.

Justin and Jackson stood over one of the cars they had acquired at some point. It was a beat up El Camino that they never did get running. Derek went over to them to see what was going on. I only caught every third or fourth word, but I gathered that the gist of the conversation was that they didn't want to leave their project vehicle behind. I heard Derek ask them why they thought that they had to leave it, and Justin responded that they never got it running so they wouldn’t be able to drive it to Montana. Derek laughed and pointed to the SUV that their dad had, and more specifically, the tow hitch. It was such a simple solution that they didn't even think of it, and it was far from a permanent solution, but until they came across a trailer that would work, one of the boys would be behind the wheel manning the brakes. They were happy enough with that idea. They loaded the tools that they had been working on the El Camino with into the open bed as well as a few extra tools that they didn't want to leave behind.

I noticed that not everyone seemed to be super excited over the move. Kristen was standing in her garden with a sad look on her face. I handed Nathan off to Louise and told them I would be right back. I wandered over to my sister-in-law and said hi. She quickly brushed the tears off of her face and made her voice sound more cheerful than she felt.

"Wanna talk about it?" I asked as I stood next to her, quietly.

"There's not a lot to say. I don't know what it is that's making me cry." She replied, trying to sound more confident than she felt. I knew Kristen often tried to make people think she was having a random hormonal moment instead of owning her feelings, and seeing how I knew her better than that, I wasn't about to let her get away with it. She hated giving her feelings a name or acknowledging them at all, but sometimes, that is exactly what you needed to do so you could move on. I sighed sympathetically.

"This is your house. The look on your face right now? It's a lot like the look that was on mine when I had to leave the complex. Part of you knows that you can't stay, and that is hard. You made this place your home and you made this a beautiful place to be in. You worked your butt off to make this home. You look at all the blood, sweat, and tears that went into making this a place that is yours. You see where Nathan played and how he grew from this little peanut that scooted around the kitchen on his belly when he refused to crawl, to this kid that now runs in circles in that same kitchen. And now? Well you know it has to start all over. It sucks."

Kristen laughed softly, "Yeah, it sucks." She sniffed her nose and brushed off a new run of tears off of her cheeks.

"Is this something you want to do, coming with us?" It occurred to me that I never really did ask if they wanted to come, I just assumed they just did.

"Yeah, it is. Still hard. It's the whole starting over thing, you know? I'm standing here in my garden thinking about how in a couple weeks I was going to plant a few things in that spot by the wall now that the colder weather has set in, and now I can't. This garden has a few things that are planted that I'll never harvest. I think about all the people that are alive right now and how there has to be some groups of people like us who are so desperate to find a place just like this and here we are, just leaving it. We've been here for a long time, Cali. This was home for years before the zombies, and now? We're just leaving it."

"What can I do to help?" I asked softly.

"Promise me that it's worth it?" She whispered to me.

"I think it is." I looked her in the eyes, and tried to convey that this was a good thing. I hoped she felt what I tried to express.

"Well, I don't want us to stay here alone, so okay, let's pack up the stuff. I found a bunch of seed packets, by the way, that I never got around to planting. We have to make sure we take those."

"We will take anything we can. Between the field and the yards, you'll have more than enough places to plant now."

We stood together silently for a moment while she collected herself. With a nod, she started towards the gardening shed and started to pull out all of her gardening equipment and asked if we could put it in the truck. I nodded in agreement before I went to the shed and started to pull things out myself.

It didn't take long before we loaded every space that didn't need to be open for a person to sit. Kristen took one last look around before she ran into the house and came back with a couple of pieces of construction paper and a black marker. In careful lettering, she wrote,

"We had to move on, we outgrew this place. There are wells and a garden behind these good fences. If you need a place to hide, hide here."

She ran back inside and found a hammer under the sink as well as a couple of nails. The truck was against the fence so when she came back, she climbed on it so she could lean over the fence and she nailed the sign on the outside. She smiled when she was done.

"That helped," she said, "Now, I know that if there are other people out there they know that this can be a place of hope for them, like it was for us." She looked around the backyard again, walked over to her car, and called Nathan over. "Hey buddy. Are you ready for a new adventure?" Nathan nodded his head emphatically and she gave him a tight hug. "Do you have all your toys?" He nodded again. "Okay then love, buckle into your seat." She buckled him in to the car seat then kissed him on the head. After she closed the door to the back seat, she turned to me and said, "For him. I can be brave for him." She smiled at me then walked around to the driver's side of the car and climbed in.

Mike unlatched the gate and waved to Trent to start the back out process. We pushed it open with the truck as we backed out, and everyone followed behind us. After everyone else was out, Kristen backed her car out. Mike shut the gate and jumped into the passenger's seat, and we were off.

It was funny, how many cars it took to move six families. Sure, there were only seven cars, but we looked like a Labor Day parade. I chuckled inside thinking about how it had to look, and how it was good Jack's group knew this was coming, because otherwise, it had to look weird. When we rolled past there were a couple of people standing on the porch, like they wanted a glimpse of their new neighbors for themselves. I'm sure that we made an interesting little group to see coming down the road. Drew and Liam were sitting in the back of the truck and they chatted happily in the back. I loved listening to their chatter. They speculated about Jack and what life in the town would be like.

In a little more time, we reached our walls. Tyreese waved at us from the top of the wall before he climbed down and opened the bus gate. We drove through and parked along the street by the school and everyone else followed suit. When the last car was through and the gate was shut, everyone got out of their cars and looked over the town. The people that had never been here before looked rather impressed with their home. I waved everyone over and explained the general layout of the town. I explained that the school was where we would stay until the houses were ready. We walked over to the school and then up the street where we showed everyone where their homes would be, and gave them the option of switching it up if anyone needed it. As we toured the area, everyone seemed pleased with the places they were about to move into. As I imagined, Nathan was thrilled about the jungle gym. The other kids were excited as well to have a place where they could run and scream. Drew stood off to the side with his arms folded as he watched them play. I watched him as he stood over the littler ones, and realized that Liam was standing on the other side, with the same stance, as though they were both on point. Part of me wanted to cry over these two as they refused to play. They were still so young, but they had grown up more than they should have. Eleven-year-olds should be playing too.

We talked about how Lacey, Tanya, and I started with taking out stuff that we knew people weren't going to be wanting in their house and that we were taking those things to the mercantile, and that we had a burn pile for the beyond nasty things that may be encountered. We had cleared most of Kristen's and Louise's place, but we suggested they go through again and do the same thing. Kristen and Louise nodded in understanding and then offered to help out anyone who might need it afterward. We also brought up the businesses that were in the area and said that we wanted to see those places back up, especially the caf
é, the garage, the fire department, and the medical center. Louise did a happy dance about the café, seeing that as a place where we could meet for family dinners at least once a week. Derek was just as happy about the garage. I knew that his ideal retirement was going to be able to work on cars as a hobby, and that was looking like more of a reality.

While we were talking, we realized that we were without power at all here. No one had seen any solar panels and we wanted to make finding some place that would have them a high priority. I knew that the solar thing wasn't likely to be as big here as it was in California where us hippies were. I also accepted the reality of winter here being a bigger deal, and that the solar panels will be covered in snow when they are on top of the roofs.

"Why are solar panels mounted on roofs?" I asked, addressing no one in particular.