The ZWD Trilogy (Book 1): Zombie World Dominance [The Destruction Begins] (33 page)

As
darkness fell, they slept. Kimberly’s sleep was restless as she kept having
dreams about the people she lost over these six months. They were up with the
sun. They ate what food that Kimberly had been hiding for breakfast. They
gathered up their supplies as they left the store.

As
they were walking towards Grants Pass, Floyd said, “You know, it’d be nice to
have a day that did not begin with rain. Next time we go out scrounging for
food, I need a new pair of shoes, if we can find some. I’ve walked a hole in
both of mine. An excellent steak with a cold beer would be nice. Anyway, we
need to cut up this plastic so we can have a raincoat when it starts to rain
again.”

“Okay,
Floyd. We’d all like that steak and a cold beer about now. I’d help you butcher
a cow, if you could find one. Remember, I worked the news in Portland on KGW.
It was an NBC affiliate, and I was a street reporter trying to work my way up
to the news desk, then to anchor. I know about Oregon rain. I stood in a lot of
it during many a live news report. What’s coming down today doesn’t really even
count as rain in Oregon.”

“Kimberly,
if you were on the fast track to being an anchor, what happened?” asked Eddie.

“Well,
let’s just say that if you sleep with the owner of the station, you get
promoted faster. On the other hand, when you
refuse
to sleep with the
owner, you get to find a new job. Therefore, I wound up in Riverside.”

She
stopped suddenly. “Shhhh. Everyone stop. Keep quiet. Do you see what I am
pointing at down there? I think it’s a raccoon. They’re not the best to eat, and
they’re hard to catch. Eddie, do you think that you could hit it with that
spear you made?”

“You
know I’ll do my best. I need the two of you to go back about sixty feet, and go
down the bank. Start walking slowly towards the raccoon. I’m going to go ahead
about 25 feet so I can get in front of it. The two of you will persuade him to
move towards me. It should work. I know I’m hungry enough to eat a raccoon.
They are kind of fatty, but they taste like chicken.”

“Okay,
Floyd, you are with me. We just need to be as quiet as we can until we get down
there.”

Kimberly
and Floyd walked back down the road a bit. They crossed over the guard rail and
climbed down the bank. Eddie went further on up the road and down the bank to
hide in wait for the raccoon. With everything that had been against them since
they had left Llano, their luck turned, and Eddie speared the raccoon. They
cleaned it right there, putting it into a bag. Back on the highway, they walked
with a spring in their step. This had been one of the few good things that had
happened to them since the zombie outbreak had started seven months ago.

It was
already getting dark when they got to Grants Pass. Knowing that the zombies
would be coming out to hunt soon, they quickly found a house that they could
make secure. It was a two-story home with a front window that had been shattered.

They
made sure that the house was empty before they settled in. Once inside, they
used a chain that they had found in the front yard to secure the door. They
were able to find enough material in the house to close up the shattered front window.

When
Floyd checked the upstairs, he found a ladder leading to the roof. After the
house was secured, Floyd went up the ladder to see what was up there. What he
found on the flat roof was a small patio. The owner had built a deck with a
fire pit to enjoy the cooler evenings in Grants Pass. The railing that was around
the patio was solid. It was about four feet high so that whoever was up there
could not be seen from below. As Floyd came down, he noticed a stash of firewood
that was clearly for the fire pit. Floyd called downstairs, “Hey, guys, come see
what I found up here. Eddie, bring the raccoon. We can cook it up here on the
roof.”

As
Kimberly poked her head up from the top of the ladder, she was surprised.
Standing on the ladder, she said, “Floyd, you’re my hero. We can make a fire to
cook on without anyone seeing it. You did good. I don’t care that a raccoon is
not the tastiest thing to eat. To me, it’ll taste like the best steak ever.”

Eddie
was standing on the bottom rung of the ladder. He shouted to Kimberly, “Can you
make a decision? If you are going up on the roof, then go. If not, then get
your ass out of my way.”

“Wow.
I’ve been told my ass is nice to look at. What are you complaining about? Wait
your turn. I’ll move when I’m ready.”

As
Kimberly climbed up onto the patio, Floyd called down to Eddie, “When you come,
up bring some of the wood from the stash down at the bottom of the ladder, and
find some paper so I can get a fire started, so you can cook dinner. I’m hungry!”

“Okay,
Floyd. I’ll bring it up, but I ain’t your slave. You could ask me nicely next
time. We’re all hungry. We’re all a little grumpy, too. I’ll get this damn
thing cooked as soon as you get the fire started.”

Eddie
found some paper for the fire. Then, with the door at the top of the ladder
open, he began tossing the wood up. The first piece of wood he threw hit
Kimberly in the head. She cried out.

Eddie
didn’t realize that he had hit her, and continued tossing more wood up. The
last thing he threw was the bag with the raccoon. Then he climbed the ladder.

He was
surprised to find that the patio was so small. Kimberly was standing next to
the railing, rubbing her head.

“What’s
the matter? He said.

“You
clocked me right in the head with that first piece of wood,” she replied.

He
looked at her and said, “Kimberly, I’m sorry I hit you with the wood. It
doesn’t look like you are bleeding, but I think you’re gonna have a lump on
your head. I really am sorry.”

“Don’t
worry about it, Eddie. I should have gotten out of the way. It’s my own fault.
I should have realized you’d throw the wood instead of carrying it. You can
make it up to me by cooking this damn raccoon. I want a hot meal tonight.”

As
Floyd was making the fire, Eddie was getting the raccoon ready to cook.
Kimberly had gone back down to the first-floor to clean the table off so it
would be ready for them to eat. She started to look for plates when Eddie
called down to her.

“Kimberly,
is there a skillet down there in the kitchen?”

“I’ve
been looking, Eddie. So far I haven’t found a skillet. I haven’t found any
plates, either. Let me look for something down here to cook on. Give me a
minute.” She rummaged in the cupboards. “Eddie, I think I found something that
you can use. It’s like the side of a small shopping cart. It’s not very big. Do
you want it?”

“If
that is all you can find, Kimberly. The meat will be dry because it won’t cook
in grease, but a hot meal is still a hot meal. I’m gonna stay up here so I can
cook all of it now so it won’t spoil later. There’s enough that we should be
able to get two or maybe even three meals out of this if we are not piggy about
it.”

“Eddie,
if you can give me a hot meal with meat, I’ll carry you to the next town
myself. Get it done so we can eat.”

Kimberly
brought the grill up to Eddie. It wasn’t big enough to cook all of the meat at
once, so he had to cook the meat in several stages. For the next 45 minutes,
Eddie cleaned, skinned and cooked the raccoon. When he was finished cooking as
much of the raccoon as would fit on the grill, he put the cooked meat in the
sack. Then he cooked the rest of the animal. When he was done, he took a bucket
in the corner that was full of rain water and put the fire out. Down the ladder
he came with the cooked meat. With a flourish, he entered the kitchen, holding
the bag in his outstretched arm.

“Dinner
is served, my friends!” He said in a bad English accent. “Kimberly, where be
the plates on which I may make a magnificent presentation? Have we any utensils
to eat with? Must we be barbarians, eating with our fingers?”

“Eddie,
I’ve been looking all over this kitchen. I’ve looked through the whole house.
There’s nothing to eat off
of,
or eat
with.
If you don’t want
your share of the meat, I’ll eat it for you. I don’t mind using my hands. How
about you, Floyd?”

“I’d
use my
feet
if I had to. I’m so hungry, I say just throw it on the
table. It smells great.”

“Okay,
I tried to class it up a little, but if you hillbillies wanna eat with your
hands, then so be it. Here you go.”

The
three of them ate with the knives they carried, picking up the slices of meat
with their fingers. Floyd said, “Eddie, I know that a raccoon is a tough animal
to cook. Other than being hot, it was greasy. The flavor was not the best. But
you have outdone yourself. To me, today, this is better than any prime rib that
I’ve ever had. As far as I’m concerned, you are now our cook.”

“Floyd
is right about the meat. It’s been so long that we felt safe enough to build a
fire to cook anything. From now on, if it’s got a pulse, you’ll cook it. All we
need to go with this is cold beers for everyone. When we go out rummaging for
stuff, we might want to keep an eye out for beer.”

“Kimberly,
do you think we can take one more day here to hunt for more meat?” said Floyd.
“I know your plan was to get to Eugene as quick as we could. One day won’t make
that much of a difference. What do you say? That raccoon’s got to have a family
around here just waiting for us to put them on our plate.”

“It’s
secure enough,” said Kimberly. “With only the one door, it is better that way.
The broken window is boarded up pretty good. I guess one more day here won’t
kill us. Let me make one statement about this. We can’t stay linger in places any
more. We have a goal that we need to get to, come hell or high water. Waiting
another day will keep pushing our goal further away from us. If we are not
careful, winter will stop us where we are when it hits. This is the last extra
day until we get to where we’ll set up our winter camp. Are you both with me on
this? I am really firm on it. If we don’t make it to where we need to be when
winter hits, we will be forced to stay wherever we are. Where we are right now,
there is no food nearby. We could starve to death without a supply of food over
the winter.”

They
all nodded agreement.

“Okay,
then. I know we have a long way to go, but we can stay here for one more day.
We can go out to scrounge for better clothes and shoes, and like Floyd said, we
can see if that raccoon had any family or friends out there that might want to
meet us.”

They
had just finished their dinner when, out of nowhere, there was a knock at the
door. The three of them practically jumped straight up out of their chairs,
almost knocking the table over. Kimberly grabbed Floyd’s arm, holding a single
finger to her lips as a sign to be quiet. She pulled them closer to her as she
whispered, “Did you hear that? Did someone just knock on the door, or was that
the wind? What the hell is going on? Have the zombies found manners by starting
to knock on the doors before coming in to kill us? Okay, guys, get your spears.
Go up the stairs a bit, Eddie, and Floyd, go back in the kitchen a little.
Stand in the shadows, but keep an eye on this room. Both of you stay out of
sight until I need you. If it comes to it, don’t be afraid to kill to stop
whoever it is. I’ll open the door a crack. I can keep the chain on so it won’t
open any further than I want it to. I wanna see who the hell has the nerve to
be knocking on our door.”

The
guys took their spears and stood in their assigned places. Kimberly went to the
door. She shouted through it first: “Who is it? What do you want?”

“My
name is Wayne Locks. I’m out here with my young sons. There’s just three of us,
and we don’t mean you any harm. We just want to share some information with you…
can we come in, please? We don’t want anything but to talk.”

“Okay,
hold on a minute. I’m going to let a little slack in this chain so I can see
you.”

Kimberly
released the barricade that they had made. She kept the chain on the door,
holding just a little slack so the door would open a few inches but not all the
way. Standing there looking back at her through the crack in the door were
three men. With authority in her voice, she spoke to them again.

“Who
are you? What do you want with us?”

“We’ve
been following you since the three of you walked through Rouge River a few
miles back. We know that there are three of you. We were watching while you
caught the raccoon. The three of you impressed us. Again, my name is Wayne Locks.
These are my two sons, Berry, and my younger son, Bobby, standing behind me.
Their mother — my wife, Betty — is back at our camp with the rest of our group.
Please, do you mind if we come in? We mean you no harm. We’d like to talk to
the three of you. We have something that you might find interesting.”

“First
things first. Do you have any weapons?”

“Yes,
we have two clubs, and I have a gun.”

“You
can come in, but I have to insist that you leave all of your weapons outside.
Are you okay with that?”

“We
understand, and we don’t have any problem with that. There’s a chair next to
the door. I’m going to move it away from the house to make you feel better. We
are going to put our weapons on the chair.”