Trying to Survive (Part 3) (3 page)

Chapter 6

   When Jenny noticed a sign that read “Hinesville – 4 miles” she said “It’s an especially small city, but it’s near Savannah so it should be pretty developed and have everything we need. If the shredders allow it, I think we should spend as much time as we need to fill up the trunk before we set out again.”

   “I say we try and find a 10-gallon gas can, so after we fill up the car we can fill it again and take it with us. If we do that and raid a grocery store we’ll barely ever have to stop. Not to mention, we’ll use a lot less bullets every day.” Walt suggested.

   Brian interjected. “Damn good idea... This thing has a huge trunk, so we could probably carry two of them – along with a month’s supply of food.”

   “It all depends on the shredders guys. We might just have to keep moving and start heading west to an even less populated area. Even the smallest little convenience store could net us enough food for weeks if no one else has emptied it out – probably more.” Jenny remarked.

   “Walt’s right. We need to make it so we aren’t having to stop for such long periods of time throughout the day… Shredders aren’t the only thing we have to worry about.” Brian looked over to Jenny. “Almost everyone we’ve come across seems to just wait around for the opportunity to rob a group like us.”

   In my current state I always felt like I wasn’t really involved in any of the planning. All I could do was offer my inexperienced opinions. I wasn’t actually taking the risk with them. For the time being, I was just a helpless observer who was blatantly overprotective of his younger brother. Though if need be, I’m far more capable than I was a week ago.

   Hinesville wasn’t at all what I thought it would be. Even though we were in a completely different state, many parts of it were almost identical to Palm Coast – there were even palm trees everywhere. The majority of the buildings were either new or well taken care of, and the homes suggested slightly above average realty prices.

   When looking at a map it appeared to be the perfect type of place to search, but we soon found it to be the exact opposite of what we were looking for. There were so many strip malls, stores, homes and apartment buildings packed into the tiny area that we barely had enough room to avoid the massive population of shredders and all the vehicles in the road. It was a miniature metropolis, only lacking the soulless mountains of steel and glass.

   Brian barked “Fuck!” as he smacked the steering-wheel. “We can’t be here when it gets dark.”

   Jenny sighed and said “Damn it… According to the map, this city is supposedly less than a third the size of Melbourne.”

   “Shouldn’t we turn around? This place is a death trap.” Walt nervously asked.

   “Not yet.” Jenny said as she unfolded the map.

   “Okay, new plan.” She turned to Brian. “Keep going straight and we’ll be able to pick up 84 again in a few minutes. There’s a really small town called Fleming in between here and Savannah… Hopefully it’ll be the kind of place that only has two gas stations in the entire area.”

   “What about a gun shop? Should we really keep going with such a small amount of ammo left?” Brian said as he studied our surroundings. “This seems to be the place to find a really good one.”

   Walt remarked “Doubt we’ll find any survivors here.” He shook his head in disbelief. “I don’t know about you guys, but I’m guessing we’ve already passed a few thousand of them.”

   “And those are the ones we can see… Imagine how many are gonna come pouring out of the stores when the sun goes down.” I replied.

   As Jenny studied the map, I could sense her frustration building. She turned to Brian. “You’re probably right about this place having a descent gun shop, but I don’t think we should try anything here. We could be overwhelmed too easily.”

   “Yeah, no doubt. It wouldn’t even be a good idea to stop for a few minutes to siphon gas.”

   “Make the next left so we can go through the neighborhoods, it’s just getting worse.”

   Brian shut off the AC and apologetically said “Sorry everyone, gotta conserve gas. Who knows when we’ll be able to stop again.”

   We rolled down all the windows, but it wasn’t quite as hot as I suspected it would be. It was a relief to know that being farther North would at least give us the comfort of cooler nights.

   Clara was sitting in between me and Walt. Every time I glanced over, her eerily lifeless eyes were fixed straight ahead. She didn’t even seem to acknowledge the shocking amount of shredders all around us. I was genuinely beginning to fear that she would never be “okay”.

   After Anthony died, she reverted back to the comatose state we found her in. The only difference being she was adamant on learning how to defend herself instead of just huddling by Melanie. Now, it’s even worse, to the point where I can’t get a read on her emotions at all. Almost like she doesn’t have any. Before Melanie died, I could at least sense her sadness…

   Despite the droves of shredders and usual scenes of twisted metal and death, when Brian turned off the main road we were soon met by one of the most welcoming and beautiful neighborhoods I’ve ever seen.

   Most of the homes were the average one story, two car garage box meant for a small family, but they all had character and were completely unique. The massive trees throughout the neighborhood linked together and formed a magnificent canopy that shaded the streets and homes. In between them sat several different, much smaller breeds that somehow produced shades of purple and white leaves and flowers.

   Even though I haven’t seen much of the country, at that moment I decided that if I was still alive when the shredders died off I would make this place my home. After spending most of my life in a city, coasting through the endless ocean of ancient trees was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever experienced – even though they were now shading hell.

   Brian took his foot off the gas. “Do you hear that?” He and Jenny said in unison.

   “Car alarms?” Walt said with uncertainty.

   I tried to listen, but I could barely pick it up. That night when I was running back to the house with Anthony in my arms, Jessie was forced to fire less than a foot away from my left ear as I passed him.

   Every time I covered my right ear to test the hearing in my left, it made everything sound like I was underwater. There was a slight ringing, but it mainly just felt clogged, like it was stuffed with cotton. Luckily, Jenny assured me it would slowly return to normal, but for the time being I was down an ear as well.

   Walt remarked “Sounds like a bunch of them are going off. That’s weird.”

   Brian suddenly cut left onto one of the side streets. “I bet you some people did it to use as a distraction!”

   Jenny agreed and said “Yeah, but car alarms will stay on for a long time before they shut off or kill the battery. The people who did it could be long gone, or even dead, but it’s worth checking out.”

   “Let’s give it about ten minutes. If we don’t see anyone, we really need to start making our way out of this city. We got an hour until dark – max.”

   It wasn’t long before I was able to clearly hear the alarms. Brian pointed left to a multi-building apartment complex and said “I think they’re coming from over there.”

   Jenny reached down, pulled the M4 into her lap, switched off the safety and replied “Makes sense. Sounds like a bunch of cars right next to each other in a parking-lot.” She turned back to us. “Get ready, the noise probably drew in hundreds of them.”

   Brian added “Yeah, notice there aren’t too many around all of a sudden? They must have all gone to investigate.”

   Brian turned into the entrance of the apartment complex and brought the car to a crawl. We slowly followed the sharply curving road past the first building. When we rounded the second and the third came into view, I could immediately see the flashing cars in the parking lot, surrounded by what looked more like a thousand shredders. “Hundreds” was an extreme understatement.

   They were all just pacing around and searching the area. The noise had drawn them in, but they were no longer reacting to it and seemed to be spreading out again. Though the fact that some of them haven’t left already told me the alarms haven’t been going off for very long.

   W
hoever did this may still be around. They probably just wanted to break into apartments and search for food…

   Jenny said “Wow, look how well this works.”

   Brian let out a short and dismal laugh. “Throw it in the bag of tricks.”

   “Don’t forget, the noise shit won’t work on the same pack more than once or twice.” Walt reminded them.

   Brian crept toward the pack until the car was no more than a hundred feet away, then came to a stop. “They haven’t noticed us yet, let’s take a few minutes to look around before they do.”

   Jenny turned back to us and said “Use your rifles to check the windows in the other buildings. They’re too far away for us to really see anything.”

   Just as Walt rested his rifle on the window opening and put his eye to the scope, Brian excitably said “Third window from the left, second floor! I see a woman. Look, she’s waving to us.”

   By the time I found the window, a man had joined her. Jenny said “They’re trapped. Look, all the front doors to those apartments are facing the parking-lot.”

   Jenny lifted up from her seat and hung half her body out of the car. She began waving back and motioning for them to stay put. They both stopped waving, the woman nodded and then they backed away from the window.

   Brian said “Guess I’ll just lay on the horn. As soon as they see us they’ll forget about the car alarms.”

   I pointed out “There’s nowhere to put them.”

   “Fuck, I didn’t even think about that.”

   “Hurry up and leave before they notice us. The street in front of this place is totally empty, so we’ll have no problem getting another car. Doesn’t matter what it is as long as we can get it started.”

   Brian put it in reverse and let the car start rolling backward. Jenny said “Good thing these Cadillac’s are so quiet. The shredders would have heard a normal car.”

   I cut in. “I think I have an idea.”

   Once we were out of sight, Brian quickly backed into a parking spot and pulled out so wouldn’t have to continue the rest of the way in reverse. Jenny said “What?”

   “The buildings seem to circle around a small lake, so if we head left at the entrance it should eventually loop around and put us on the other side of the pack. We don’t want to lead them back to the entrance. They might end up blocking us in.”

   “Perfect.”

   “I’ll be the one to pick them up. I’ll wait by the entrance, and once you lead them away I’ll pull up in front of their door. Easy.”

   “Take Walter with you so he can watch them while you drive. We can’t trust them.” Clara said with a dulled, but serious tone.

   I looked down at her and watched as she moved her eyes over to me without turning her head. “Good idea Clara.”

   Walt said “She’s right. You never know.”

   Brian left the complex and drove over to a station wagon that was left in the middle of the street. Jenny opened the door, got out to keep watch and said “Sounds like we have a good plan worked out.”

   When I started to climb out, Clara grabbed my arm. “Don’t trust them.”

   “Don’t worry Clara, I learned my lesson on trust. I think we all did.” I half-smiled. “Everything’s going to be fine. Like I said… we can’t be the only good people left.”

   Clara didn’t respond. She just held onto my sleeve for a few moments, let go and then continued to stare straight ahead. I could feel the anger and concern in her surprisingly tight grip.

   Walt got to the car first, so he hopped in the driver’s seat. “Keys are here!” When I made it over, he said “You’re the better shot, so I’m driving.”

   I agreed and got in the passenger seat as he started up the engine. “It probably won’t be much longer until we have to start jumping any cars we want to use. Good thing that Caddy has an emergency kit with jumper-cables in the trunk.”

   When Jenny heard the old Volvo station wagon come to life, she said “Be careful guys!” and hopped back in the car. Brian leaned over so we could see him and gave us a wave, as if to say “Good luck.”

   Walt flung open the door and yelled “Wait!” as Brian started to drive away. The car stopped and Walt approached Jenny’s window. “Give me your 9mm. It’ll be really hard for James to keep a big-ass rifle on them in the car.”

   Jenny agreed and passed it through to him. When Walt fell back into the car and handed me the pistol, he said “As soon as they get in, you keep this on them. I don’t care how nice they look or how honest they seem.”

   “I know... And when we find a place to stay for the night we’ll take turns keeping watch. One of us will always have to be awake for a while.”

  
I’m the one who found Melanie and saw Clara huddled in the corner, covered in her blood…
If these people even put off a weird vibe on the way to the car I’m telling Walt to drive away…

   As we sat at the entrance and waited to hear Brian start beeping the horn, I looked down at my stomach. The small “belly” I’d built up over the last few years was already shrinking away. Walt was always rather thin, and he was never a big eater, so I doubted he was even bothered by having to eat such a small amount of food every day.