The Swamp (20 page)

             
“I love you too, Rebecca.” He said back.

             
She put her hands on the side of his face and drew him into a kiss, then pulled back and slid her hands down to undo his shirt. He thought of resisting, but the idea quickly fled. Instead he moved his hands from around her and pulled her t-shirt over her head. He looked at her, awed by her beauty as the sun streaming in the windows lit her skin. He leaned in and kissed her again.

             
They made love several times that morning and into the afternoon. Sam felt like a teenager again and delighted in exploring her body. She returned the attention with a passion that surprised him. By the time they were sated, they knew it was too late to move on that day and lay down to sleep in each other’s arms. Sam fell asleep with the smell of her hair filling his nostrils, and no dream troubled him that night.

Chapter 17

             
The sun was coming up the next morning, as they shared a breakfast of cold beef-a-roni and the last the saltines. Sam felt a hopefulness that he hadn’t experienced for a very long time. After the meal, Sam began to pack their meager possessions into the back pack.

             
“I have an idea,” He began, “The swamp is about 30 miles away, almost due west. That would take us several days if not more to walk, and it takes us back towards those crazies.”

             
“Okay.” She said, listening.

             
“The farm where my family was being held is about five miles from here, ten at the most. It was run by a group of soldiers, and I saw several good vehicles. A couple of Humvees and a big truck, not counting the one that drove off. There might even be weapons and supplies in them.” Sam explained.

             
“So you want to go back to the farm, but won’t it be covered in the dead still?” She asked, instantly finding the flaw in his plan.

             
“Quite possibly, But we both know how easy it is to get around them. There was also a truck that got away that night, maybe enough followed it… Besides, we have to go back through Reverend Joe’s wacko land one way or another, and I’d much rather do it in something bullet proof” Sam said.

             
“Sounds like a plan to me!” Rebecca said brightly. “Lead the way to my olive drab limousine.”

             
He lifted the pack to his shoulder and smiled at her. They walked outside into the sun, but as the approached the trees, she stopped and looked back at the ramshackle building. “I’m going to miss this place,” she said sadly, “a lot of good memories here.”

             
“Don’t worry we will make lots of good memories in other places.” He said. She smiled up at him and they set off.

             
They decided to walk along the tree line and risk being close to the road. They agreed that the speed they would gain would make up for the visibility, and neither relished the idea of stumbling through the briars all day. They made good time, and Mother Nature had blessed them with a morning that wasn’t too hot.

             
The two walked until almost noon when they came upon a long abandoned house. Sam guessed it was a derelict long before the world had fallen, because its paint had long since flaked away and not a single piece of glass remained in any of the windows. They stopped for a lunch of all their remaining food, and regrettably, the last of the bottled water. Sam wasn’t too worried about that, because he was pretty sure they were almost to their destination. He figured the farm was less than an hour’s walk from here.

             
After the food was gone, Sam glanced at the suns position in the sky, “We have plenty of time left before dark, and this place seems pretty secure. We can stay here for an hour a rest before moving on.”

             
“Good,” she said from behind him as he looked out the window at the tall grass blowing in the wind. “But whatever will we do to kill the time?”

             
He smiled, and started to make a very ungentlemanly suggestion, but before he could turn to her, something struck him lightly in the shoulder and clung there. He reached up and pulled her bra from his shoulder. He looked at her and saw that that was not all she had removed and stepped towards her. They ended up spending two hours before moving on.

             
The ripples of heat lifted from the pavement in front of them, the cool morning had turned into a scorching afternoon. Sam hoped he was right about the short distance to the farm.

             
“Hey Sam, do we have any water left? She finally asked, about a mile into their walk.

             
“I wish we finished the last one at lunch. I have been watching but haven’t seen anywhere to refill yet. Don’t worry there is a well at the farm.” Sam’s thirst jumped at the thought of cold well water.

             
They walked on, hugging the tree line for the shade, when she suddenly grabbed his arm, “Look!” she pointed down the road, “Someone is there.”

             
Sam squinted at first, he was unable to see what she was pointing at, but then he followed her finger and saw them. Far ahead, moving in the heat ripples, shape were milling about in the road. He pulled Rebecca into the trees and fished around in his pack until his hand closed on the small binoculars.

             
Looking through the lens, he could make out the several walkers standing in front of the farm. The farm was a clearing bordered on three sides by trees, and from this angle, he could only make about a dozen of the dead, but he could only see a small portion of the yard.

             
“We have to get across the road and into those trees.” Sam told Rebecca. “Then we can work our way through the woods and get a good look at what we are up against.”

             
“Can we do that without them seeing us?” she asked.

             
“If we stay low, and move quickly,” Sam answered, “I think we can do it.”

             
They crouched and sprinted across the road. Sam again used the glasses, but couldn’t make out if any were paying attention or moving towards them, so the worked their way about a hundred yards in and headed to the farm. They made it to the edge of the clearing in about 30 minutes. The undergrowth slowed them way down, and seemed to take forever after the day’s quickness of the road.

             
The farm was much as Sam expected it. The barn still stood where it was, but the farm house was a blackened wasted pile of rubble. Towards the front of the yard around the house, He saw the line of Humvees. Their large blocky frames looked quite menacing compared to the vehicles he was used to, but he had read about them, and knew the main advantage to military vehicles was the fact that they wouldn’t need a key.

             
He took note of the dead milling around. There were about three dozen that they would have to deal with. Not undoable, but he would have been happier with less.

             
“There were a lot more last time I was here,” Sam told her “I had hoped that a bunch of them would follow the truck when it left and it appears most of them did.”

             
“But something is not right here,” she said after her turn with the binoculars, “They should have gone dormant by now, but something has them riled up.”

             
He looked again, and thought back to his conversation with Paul on the way here the first time, it seemed like years ago, but not even two weeks had passed. “Someone told me about that, but I haven’t seen it. Have you?”

             
“Yes,” Rebecca said back, “Many times when we were on the road we would come across some of them, then we would have to run and hide. They would only look for us for about an hour or two, and then they would just stop. They would stay that way until they saw something else they wanted to eat, then they would just carry on like nothing had happened.”

             
“So that means something has been through here recently.” Sam guessed “Crazies?”

             
“I have no idea, “she said,” but I don’t like it.” He could see she was growing nervous.

             
“Well let’s get in there before whatever it was comes back.” Sam said and told her his plan.

             
The farm was still surrounded by the large fences, but the interior was divided into four smaller sections by other fences. These had originally been used to keep cattle or horses in one section, and to divide the planted fields. In the front of the property by the road, a smaller fenced in area had surrounded the farmhouse, and this is where most of the dead were confined, but unfortunately, so were the vehicles. These fences stood about five foot tall, and since the reanimated lacked the intelligence to climb, they would be a sufficient barrier.

             
Sam planned to work his way into the fields, and move towards the remains of the farm house. With any luck, they would spot him and bunch up against the fence, where he could easily take them out one at a time. He did not think there were enough of them to push down the gate, so they should be safe.

             
He didn’t have anything to cut the wire, so he had to use his stick method to get them under the razor wire, and then they simply climbed over the fence on the inside. They made their way easily across the fields, and soon found themselves standing at the massive barn doors, which still stood open from that night.

             
The smell of human confinement, the urine, sweat and staleness assaulted them, but Sam just pulled his shirt over his nose and stepped inside. The floor was littered with the blankets and few possessions the captives had abandoned when the left. Sam searched around, and soon found what he needed, in the corner set a pile of left over materials from when the farmers that once owned this land had built something long ago. He retrieved several pieces of rebar, each about 3 foot long and hefted it, it was a little heavy, but it would work. He stepped out, feeling pity for his brother and the other people that had been stuck in there, locked into that place every night, and rejoined Rebecca.

             
The barn was only a short distance from the house, and already they had been noticed. The dead were moving towards them, massing at the fence. He felt a sense of self satisfaction that his plan was working. He crossed the distance to the fence, and using the rebar as a spear, drove it into one of the dead’s face. He felt bone crack as it pierced the rotting flesh and the thing went down. He moved on to the next one and did that same, with the same result.

             
Rebecca joined him and they worked together for the few minutes it took to clear the dead that had already gathered. He could see some stragglers still working their way over, but they had a minute to rest.

             
“Working like a charm,” He bragged to Rebecca, “A few more minutes and we will be in.”

             
“I never doubted you for a minute.” She replied.

             
“Stick with me kid, you will go far,” he replied smugly, and stepped forward to down another one that had finally made it to the fence, standing on the bodies of the ones beneath its feet.               He stabbed it through the eye, and watched it fall. He looked for his next target, and noticed something odd. The few remaining inside the yard had turned away from them, and were now staring at the front of the property.

             
A feeling of panic flooded through him. “Oh shit!” He said, and grabbed Rebecca’s arm.               “Something is coming.” He whispered to here, and pulled her away from the fence at a run.

             
“What is it?” she asked her voice full of apprehension.

             
“I don’t know, but we have to hide.” Was all he said and started to the barn, before an idea occurred to him and he veered off to the hay bale atop the hill at the center of the farm. Glancing over his shoulder, he could see nothing.

             
They made it to the hay bale and after a second, found the entrance to the soldiers blind, and went inside. It was cramped quarters for two people, but they could manage.

             
He pulled the binoculars from the pack and looked to the front of the farm. He felt his blood drain from his face as he watched the group of about forty men streaming down the road.

             
He handed the glasses to Rebecca, “It is them they found the farm” Was all he said.

             
She looked down the hill and adjusted the focus. Joseph’s followers came into view. ”Oh my god, do you think they saw us?”

             
“No, I don’t think so, it they had they would be coming after us.” Sam replied.             

             
Down below, the dead had come within range, and the crazies had started to cut them down with arrows. They made quick work of it, helped by the fact that Sam and Rebecca had cleared out most of them and set out to explore the farm.