Total Apoc Trilogy (Book 3): Horde Ravaged (12 page)

            After circling the house, I went inside and looked for them. Nothing. So I checked the tumbledown outbuildings. There wasn't much hope I'd find them but I had to look. It was dark by the time I searched everything.

            Logic said I had to stay and wait. But all I could think about was Olivia out there all alone, lost, maybe hurt. I wanted to go look for her, but where? Which way did she go?

            My mind wouldn't even let me think that she was dead or turned into a zombie.

            "They'll probably show up at any moment, mocking me for being worried," I whispered.

            I moved to the thick underbrush between the house and the road. Setting the pack down, I sat and leaned back against it. All I could do was wait, watch, and listen. Everything depended on them coming back to that rally point. And then I had a horrible thought.

            "What if they are waiting for me at the intersection?"

            Ralph was in the middle of declaring it a rally point. What if they thought that was the last rally point? What if they thought I was dead or a zombie because I wasn't there?

           
If they're not here by sunrise, I'll go to the intersection
, I thought.
But what if they're coming here, but had to lay low overnight?

            Second guessing myself was my lifelong curse. I thought I'd done well since the zombie apocalypse started. Now I was a mess.

            A scuffing sound, like a boot in gravel, made my heart race. Taking deep breaths, I slowly, quietly lay down on my belly. Finger on trigger, I watched intently in the direction the sound came. A moment later I heard a snap.

            "Please god. Please god," I whispered over and over.

            First it was dark shape, slow and hesitant. The person was crouched over, rifle in hand. Was that a helmet on his head? Her head?

            "O-Olivia?"

            "Kyle?"

            I was on my feet in a flash. She ran toward me and we smashed into each other. We hugged and kissed, holding each other so tight. Tears flowed and I think I might've giggled.

            After calming down, I was able to think straight. My hands were all over her. I needed to touch her, while checking for any injuries. I accidently knocked the helmet liner off her head, grabbed her hair, and kissed her again.

            "I was so scared that…" I couldn't finish.

            Her hands were checking me out, too. She rested her head on my chest and just hugged me tightly.

            "Me, too," she said. "Is Ralph here?"

            "He's not with you?" I replied, looking around.

            She was alone. I felt sick again.

            "What took you so long?" I asked. "Maybe he's having the same problem."

            "I got lost," she said. "They chased me for a couple hours, at least. I didn't have the foggiest idea where I was, I was exhausted, and I really didn't want to go back the way I came."

            I hadn't thought about that. Ralph was chased across the street. God only knew how long it took him to escape the zombies. Hell, I was chased or lost all day, too.

            "Do you have any water?" Olivia asked. "I’m dying of thirst."

            My canteen was empty. I'd finished it off hours earlier, but had forgotten about it. Suddenly, I was thirsty, too. So we went down to the river and filled our canteens. The boat was still there and so tempting. Zombies couldn't touch us out on the river.

            "How long should we wait for Ralph?" Olivia asked.

            "I don't know. It occurred to me earlier that he might be waiting at the intersection."

            "Where we were attacked?"

            "He was in the process of naming it a rally point."

            "Jesus," she replied. "I worked my way back to the intersection, and then followed that cross road down to this old road. I didn't see him at the intersection, but I wasn't looking either."

            We decided to give him until sunrise to rally with us at the house. We'd go check the intersection next. In the meantime, we returned to the pack and settled down for a long wait. We dug out a can of cream corn and shared it.

            "Well, we at least figured out one flaw in the rally point thing," she said after we finished eating. "We never decided on how long to wait for each other."

            The longer we sat there, the more I worried about Ralph. He had too much camping and hunting experience to take so long. If he wasn't waiting for us at the intersection, then it was unlikely he was still alive.

            "What if he's been – "

            She put her hand over my mouth.

            "Don't say it."

            We held each other through the long night. For a while she slept, head on my shoulder. Then she kept watch while I slept with my head on her shoulder. It was remarkably refreshing, but the worry returned the instant I woke.

            "It's almost sunrise," I said. "Let's check the house to make sure he didn't sneak in from the other side. If he's in the woods watching the house, then he'll see us. Otherwise, we'll head up the road to the intersection."

            We took our time checking the house, the outbuildings, and even looked around in the surrounding woods. Neither of us tried to be overly stealthy, so if anyone was watching they'd see us. It was dangerous, but we had to do everything possible to hook back up with him.

            Ralph wasn't there in the area, so we moved into the woods across the old road. I tried to keep us within sight of the road, in case Ralph followed it down like Olivia. The woods were open enough to see a good distance. We stopped often to listen for him moving through the woods toward the house, too.

            Our caution allowed us to avoid several small groups of zombies wandering southward through the forest. The intersection proved farther away from the house than I thought, but it was still early morning when we reached it. Ralph was nowhere to be found.

            "Where's the last place you saw him?"

            I pointed to a spot across the road. "I saw him go through the fence. There were zombies after him."

            We were inside the treeline, looking across the road and into that forested hill. We watched and waited a long moment, looking up and down the road for any sign of zombies. It was clear, so I watched the road while she raced across. Then she covered me. No zombies were riled up by our crossing.

            "I see some broken branches in the underbrush," I said. "I guess we try to track him down."

            "His trail is going in the right direction, toward home."

            A three round burst sounded off in the distance.

            "Other side of the hill," Olivia said. "Sounds like an M16 to me. Our guns only shot three round bursts. Ralph?"

            "That was my first thought. We have to check it out."

            "If it's not Ralph?"

            "Then we might be in trouble."

            The hill wasn't too steep, so we headed straight toward that last burst of gunshots. Another burst echoed through the forest about half an hour later. The whole thing made me uneasy. It was possible Ralph was injured and was trying to guide us in, but those shots would also attract zombies. Of course, it could be him shooting zombies, too. The third burst sounded like it was on the other side of the next hill.

            "Let's go to the top and work our way down," I said. "At least we'll have the high ground if there is trouble."

            We got about halfway up that hillside before we were stopped in our tracks. That had to be the thickest patch of thorns I'd ever seen. And it wasn't just one kind, either. There had to be every imaginable type of thorny brush in there, including blackberry. We even ate a few handfuls.

            The only way through was to hack our way with machetes, and that would make too much noise. Turning left, we started working our way around the hill. The thorn patch appeared to cover the entire hilltop. There was no getting past it.

            "Kyle," Olivia whispered, grabbed me and dropped to a knee. I knelt beside her. "I see him."

            "Ralph?"

            "Yes. Is he tied to a tree?"

            She pointed. It took me a second, but I saw him. Ralph was sitting against a tree. At first I didn't see why she thought he was tied. Then I noticed his arms were pulled back around the sides of the tree.

            "Is Ralph being used as bait to lure us in?" I asked.

Chapter 15

            "That sucks greasy monkey balls," Olivia whispered. "If you'll pardon my French."

            That was the understatement of the decade.

            "I thought you said you were a good Baptist girl?"

            "I said I was a Baptist," she replied. "I never claimed to be good."

            We backed away and found a covered place to discuss our options. Leaving Ralph behind wasn't one of them. We had to discover how many survivors were holding him prisoner, their exact hiding places, and then figure out a way to safely extract our friend.

            The situation made me feel woefully inadequate. I didn't have the training necessarily to figure it all out, much less execute a successful rescue. We discussed trying to contact them and working out an agreement, but that broke down when we realized no one could be trusted. We'd lie to them. They'd lie to us.

            "I guess the first thing to do is find out how many people we're dealing with."

            She nodded, looking as grim as I felt.

            I led the way back toward Ralph. We moved out from his location, with the assumption it would be best to sneak up behind any lookouts. I thought their lookouts would be out in front of him. We spent the better part of three or four hours doing semi-circles from the base of the hill outward and never found a single soul. During that time, I waited for another three-round burst, but it never came.

            "They must all be up on the hill behind him," I said. "I bet they have that thorn patch to their backs to keep us from sneaking up behind them."

            "I think we should watch him and wait for them to give up for the night," Olivia said. "Eventually they have to sleep, too. I bet they move him when they do."

            "What time is it?"

            "Just past two o'clock," she said. "Yeah, we're in for a long wait."

            I didn't have a better idea, so we found a good concealed spot and waited. We took turns watching him, while the other rested a few feet back. I was on my second watch when Olivia spoke in a voice way too loud.

            "Kyle, we have a problem."

            "Shhh. What?"

            "Me," a man answered. "I'll shoot this girl in the head if you make any sudden moves."

            I released my rifle and held my arms out to the side. I tried looking back, but couldn't see him. I didn't want to do anything that would get either one of us killed.

            "Sorry," she said in a tiny voice.

            "On your feet, roadies," the man said. "Girl first." I heard a rustling as Olivia stood. "Hands up. Keep them up, girl. Make sure I can see your hands, boy."

            "Hey," Olivia cried out. "Watch where you touch, moron."

            A quick glance showed a man with pieces of brush tied all over him was next to Olivia. His rifle was aimed at me, but his free hand was rubbing her between the legs. I almost jumped to my feet right then and there, but realized he was just patting her down. Still.

            "Face the tree, and then cross your wrists behind your back," he said.

            I watched him pull a large zip tie around her wrists. He forced her to lie face down before moving over to me.

            "Hands behind your back, wrists crossed, boy," he said. I complied, reluctantly. My wrists were bound with another zip tie. "Fucking roadies. How many more are there?"

            He quickly patted me down, removing all of my weapons.

            "Roadies?" I asked.

            "Road warriors. You godless bastards who roam the country killing innocent women and children for a few meager straps of food."

            "We're not road warriors," Olivia pleaded. "We're just three people trying to go home."

            "I bet you are," he said. "Just three innocent travelers, who happen to be armed like a fucking squad of Green Berets."

            "She's telling the truth," I said. "We've just been using whatever weapons we find along the way. Road warriors have attacked us many times."

            He collected all of our weapons, stuffing our pistols into the pack. Then he shouldered the back and ordered us to our feet. Olivia and I were marched up to Ralph.

            "Crap," Ralph said. He looked so ashamed. "Sorry."

            "Not your fault," I said.

            I thought we'd be tied to the same tree, or adjacent trees. Instead, he untied Ralph, and ordered us to start walking around to the other side of the hill.

            For a moment I worried he was taking us somewhere to summarily execute. Relief washed through me when he guided us to a torn up path through the thorns. The thorn patch surrounded a hilltop encampment, with rows of growing vegetables everywhere I looked and a flatten area carved out on the south side. There was a small campsite with two ATVs on that flatten spot. Then I noticed three recent graves, one adult and two child-sized, about twenty feet to the east and next to the thorn patch.

            "Oh god," Olivia said. "D-Did someone kill your family?"

            That brought back all he'd said earlier. Seeing those graves hit me hard. Our captor was hurting badly. All I could do was hope he hadn't lost his ability to think rationally and compassionately.

            "About a week ago," he said, pausing to stare at the graves. "Road warriors." He turned to the ATVs. "I was out checking my traps when I heard their engines. I came home as fast as I could, but Leslie and the boys were already dead." He glared at us with hate-filled eyes. "I killed some of them, and then dragged their bodies out for the zombies to eat."