The Zombie Virus (Book 2): The Children of the Damned (31 page)

The next morning they woke to a vista of
fluffy-white snow several inches thick on the ground with
temperatures steady in the teens. Snow continued to fall in spits
and starts with heavier bands at times blotting out the nearby
landscape. It was rare, although not unheard of, to have a spell of
January-like weather in late October in the Blue Ridge, and the
thought that went through all of their minds was how impeccable the
timing was. After a cold breakfast they hit the road again,
scavenging several of the homes along the way that were now
becoming fewer and far between. They needed to find some additional
supplies, especially appropriate footwear for Melody. Their
foraging produced a long wooden toboggan in the garage of one
upscale home set on the mountainside. They used this to put Angela
and a large portion of their supplies on to make it easier while
negotiating the snow and ice-covered highway. A cruel, cold wind
blew stiffly down off the mountaintops with a freezing bite that
hampered their progress, sometimes blowing the snow about so
heavily that it was like walking in an impenetrable cloud filled
with stinging ice crystals. Despite their layers of winter
clothing, they were all soon chilled to the bone and experiencing a
cold numbness in their fingers and toes as their bodies fought to
keep warm.

They still had several miles to walk to reach
the peak of the mountain pass that opened up onto the Shenandoah
Valley far below the mountains to the west, each step becoming an
agonizing test of their fortitude as they fought the cold, pressing
wind and deep drifting snow of the storm. They bundled a sleeping
bag around Angela, who sat quivering on the sled and frosted white
with the blowing snow. They also wrapped blankets over their own
heads and shoulders and walked hunched-over and shivering,
shuffling through the deepening snow. They now actually resembled
the refugees of a post-apocalyptic world.

“I c-can’t f-feel my hands anymore,” Katy
mumbled to Dontela with a cold-induced stutter. Dontela nodded in
understanding, only her eyes visible through the fold in a wool
blanket she had wrapped over her head and around her body. In front
of them, Kera and Melody huddled together under a single blanket,
barely able to lift their feet clear of the thickly accumulating
snow. Steven trudged stoically ahead of the pack, concentrating on
putting one foot in front of the other, pulling the heavily-laden
toboggan behind him.

Kera knew that they needed to find shelter
soon or they would die of hypothermia on the exposed mountainside.
She also realized that Steven, in his single-minded quest to
reunite with his son, would lumber on through this weather even if
his legs turned to solid chunks of ice. They were passing a scenic
overlook that normally looked down onto the valley below and now
only offered a view of the thick blowing snow of the blizzard.
There was nowhere she could see to seek shelter. On their right the
high rocky cliffs of the highway cut were dripping with vertical
sheets of ice, and to their left the mountainside dropped off
precipitously to the valley below. The highway climbed before them
into the impenetrable curtains of white snow. She guessed it was
probably at least five miles back down the highway to the last
house they had passed.

She shrugged out of the blanket, wrapped her
end tightly around Melody, and slogged forward to catch up with
Steven. He opened up his blanket to let her in when she sidled up
to him and she gratefully slid in next to him, using a sock covered
hand to help him pull the sleigh.

“This is bad,” she said above the restless
whine of the wind.

He nodded his head. “I know. I was hoping it
would have blown itself out by now.”

“We have to find some shelter. We’re going to
freeze to death if we don’t get out of this wind soon.”

“I know, Kera,” he replied in frustration.
“What do you want me to do? Conjure up a cave in the cliff, or a
nice mountain lodge on the side of the road?”

“I don’t
know
,” she said angrily. “I
only know that we’re freezing out here.”

Up ahead, a dark shape loomed out of the
blinding whiteness, as they approached, taking the shape of a
tractor-trailer rig that someone had long ago parked on the side of
the highway.

“Can we get inside there? Get out of the
weather for a while.”
Anyplace
,
is
better
than
being
out
in
this
wind
.

“Okay!” Steven yelled at her over the howling
gale.

The rear doors were locked so they stomped a
path to the cab where the driver’s door stood ajar. Steven pulled
the door open all the way and climbed up into the cab, peering into
its interior to make sure there weren’t going to be any surprises.
He pushed piles of snow off of the driver’s seat and then climbed
back out into the storm and the closely huddled group of women.
Leaving the toboggan wedged next to a tire, he helped the four
women and the little girl cram into the cab and its sleeping
compartment before climbing back up himself and slamming the door.
The sound of the storm was instantly dampened and the biting wind
was cut off. The interior of the truck’s cab was as cold as the
inside of a walk-in freezer. On the other hand, at least they were
free from the agonizing bite of the cold wind. Kera sat on the
passenger seat while Dontela, Melody, and Katy were stuffed on the
bunk with Angela huddled between them.

“We can only stay here a little while,”
Steven told them.

“Do you think it will start?” Kera asked
hopefully.

Steven shook his head. “The batteries are
long dead. “We need to huddle up and share body heat. Try to thaw
out some before we go back outside.”

“I think it’s mighty nice in here. I vote we
stay until the storm is over,” Dontela said emphatically from the
back.

“We can’t,” Steven replied. “There’s no
insulation. If we get stuck here overnight and the temperatures
drop any more than they are now, we’ll freeze to death.” He glanced
back at their blanket wrapped bodies and at the gust of vapor that
came from their mouths with each exhalation. He knew the dampness
would condense on the inside of the cab and soon the walls would be
thick with accumulating ice. “This is solely a stop to warm
ourselves and gather our energy. If we don’t keep moving we will
end up dying in here.”

He saw the fear in all their eyes. It was a
fear of going back out into the painfully cold furry of the
snowstorm.

“Shed some layers of clothes and cuddle
together as close as possible, and wrap layers of blankets around
you. It will help. Kera and I will stay up here.” It would have
been impossible for the two of them to try and squeeze into the
small space occupied by the other girls.

They shed jackets and sweaters and pushed
their bodies as close together as possible, wrapping themselves
with the shed pieces of clothing and blankets. As they shared the
heat of each other’s bodies, their hands and feet began to lose
their numbness, replaced with a tingling pain as the capillaries
opened back up. Kera and Steven sat intertwined with each other on
the passenger seat, massaging fingers and toes as the feeling
returned to them. Angela was the least bothered by the cold or the
thought of going back out into the blowing storm. She said she
enjoyed riding on the sleigh.

The
resiliency
of
kids
, Steven laughed silently to himself.

By early afternoon, they had left the truck
behind and were back into the storm, which seemed to be slowly
losing its strength as the snow showers petered out to light
flurries. The temperatures plummeted even further as the arctic
cold front plunged south, so even as the wind decreased to the
occasional gusts, the cold was again trying to seep its cold
fingers deep into the core of their bodies. Kera walked beside
Steven again, helping pull the toboggan up the steep snow-covered
road. They methodically trudged further up the icy highway and
within an hour could see the top where the interstate cut deeply
through a wedge that looked like a giant hatchet had severed the
steep ridge line. A bland, window-encased building perched upon the
crest overlooked the highway and the valley to the east of the
mountain.

“We’re stopping there,” Kera told Steven
through chattering teeth, leaving no room for argument. He nodded
in agreement, knowing that they had pushed as far as they could and
they needed to rewarm their bodies. With evening approaching and
the temperatures dropping, they would soon be suffering from
frostbite and hypothermia if they didn’t find shelter before
darkness overcame them. They unknowingly walked past the section of
blacktop where less than a week before Jeremy had scrawled his
message to his parents that was now lost to sight beneath close to
ten inches of snow.

The cold, exhausted group scrambled up the
steep slippery off-ramp that led to the Blue Ridge Parkway and the
building that looked like it had once been a hotel and was
abandoned long before the normal world had ended. When they reached
the derelict hotel, they peeked in through the large glass windows
of the reception area and saw that at least some of the furniture
remained from when the hotel was a bustling starting point for
travelers on their way down the parkway and the connecting Skyline
Drive. Couches and chairs were arranged around a central chimney
that housed an oversized fireplace open on two sides.

“Perfect,” Steven muttered upon seeing
it.

Within minutes, they had broken through a
window and gained access to the building’s interior. They busted up
some of the wooden furniture and soon had a fire roaring in the
fireplace, the bright, hot flames chasing the cold from their
bodies. Night set in as the storm completely blew itself out and
the sky cleared, revealing a plethora of stars in the cold
blackness of the heavens.

Later that night, Steven and Kera crept
passed the sleeping members of their party and out of the old hotel
through the shattered front door. They stepped hand in hand onto
the sparkling white snow that coated every surface with its muffled
silence. They lay their sleeping bag down in the deep powder under
the twinkling stars, stripped the clothes off of their warm, lean
bodies, and slid into the bag’s soft insulated envelope. It was a
tight fit even with their bodies pressed tightly together and Kera
giggled as she nestled into the heat of his body, feeling the
contrasting cold caressing her exposed back. She gasped as Steven
slid into her and clung tightly to him while their bodies moved in
a rhythm that kept pace with their passion. Their release came in a
writhing fever of lust and they screamed their climaxes into the
cold, clear night.

They slipped unseen and unnoticed back inside
the hotel, naked and trembling from their exertions, carrying their
clothes and holding the unzipped bag around them. They pressed
themselves tightly together, their thirsts for each other’s body
slaked for the time being. They lay on top of Kera’s sleeping bag
which was warm from the fire and pulled the unzipped bag over them,
falling into a deep, serene sleep.

The next morning, they woke to the bright
autumn sun shining through the large picture windows that
overlooked the valley below. To them, the world outside appeared
crisp, clean, and bright with its thick layer of blinding white
snow flocking every surface. Steven stirred the coals and built the
fire up while they ate their meager rations and gathered in close
to absorb the radiating heat from the growing flames.

“It’s all downhill from here,” Dontela
remarked half-jokingly. She and Melody sat huddled together with
Angela squeezed between them, eating granola from a bag.

“Do we have to go back out in that?”
Katherine asked. She had never before been as cold as she had been
while hiking up the mountain yesterday.

“It won’t be as bad today,” Kera replied. “As
Dontela said, it’s all downhill.”

“Not as bad is still bad,” Katherine said
with a grimace. She felt colder just thinking about being out in
the snow. She had never been a fan of winter and much preferred the
warmer southern climes this time of year.

“How about we all ride the toboggan down?”
Dontela laughed.

“That would be fun!” Angela chimed in,
brightening at the thought of a sled ride with all of them piled
on.

Steven cuddled in closer to Kera with the
sleeping bag wrapped around them. “We’ll find someplace warmer for
tonight down in the valley. Find some better food also.”

Kera nodded in agreement. “It’s pretty up
here and safe from the Loonies I imagine. But we’re not going to
find much to eat or Steven’s son on the top of this mountain.”

They stayed for another hour until the sun
was well up into the sky and water was dripping in a staccato of
drops from the building’s roof as the temperatures climbed and the
snow and ice began to melt.

Pulling the toboggan carrying their supplies
and with Angela wrapped warmly in her bag and nestled in the curve
of the toboggan’s front, Steven and Kera led the way down the slush
covered highway toward the distant town of Waynesboro.

The Stryker pulled into the Armory compound
followed closely by an up-armored Humvee. After the engines had
been cut, the occupants poured out of the vehicles onto the parking
lot. First Sergeant Shavers exited the Stryker last, smiling
broadly from cheek to cheek.

“Good job, ladies and gentlemen!” he
congratulated the team. After the disastrous missions earlier that
week, it felt good to finally accomplish an operation in textbook
fashion. They had raided the chemical plant in Waynesboro while
successfully avoiding the swarms that roamed the area. They had
gathered enough white phosphorus for the bombs that they could now
begin planning operations against the crazies and hit them hard
right where they lived. They had also posted signs along both
Interstate’s 64 and 81 for any potential refugees that were
travelling those routes, letting them know that there was safe
refuge with plenty of supplies available for anyone seeking help.
The signs directed the refugees to the Jefferson Highway exit off
of 81 to an equipment warehouse that sat immediately off the road.
It was a fenced-in compound that they had secured the previous
morning. They had closed the gate without locking it and cleared
the area surrounding the warehouse of any loose groups of crazies.
As far as they could tell there were no large swarms nearby. It
would be a safe area for any refugees to go to and wait for pickup
if they so desired. They would send out a patrol daily to check the
compound, which was a much better option than having an observation
post at the 81/64 interchange manned most days during the daylight
hours as they had done in the past. At some point they would
install a battery operated communications system at the compound so
refugees could contact them upon arrival and they wouldn’t have to
send out a daily patrol to that area at all.