Chapter 12

Prepping For The Coast

We have both vans running and set to leave. I jump out and swing open the gate being careful of any zombies that might have wandered over due to the noise we were making. There were only three outside the gate. I quickly put bullets from the .45 into them. No time for precision shots with the .22 right now. Once they go down I hop back up into the driver’s seat of my van and reload quickly. Then our little two van convoy starts for home. As we drove back home I noticed we were drawing attention to ourselves not only from zombies, but from survivors as well. I was driving as fast as I could due to my worry that another drunken group might shoot at us.

Even at the speed we were driving I could see zombies gathering and following behind us. We were driving fast enough that I could not tell if they were still following once we got out of sight. I saw several people waving from upstairs windows when we drove past. I felt sorry for them, but I was not going to stop. I had enough people to take care of right now. If we did not need them or we did not run into them directly I was not going to go out of my way to help them. This may seem cruel, but we were not yet at a point where we could just help everyone we saw. Besides, we needed to find those people who had the skills to help us survive and rebuild, not that just need protecting.

It is a new world and some of the jobs and important people from the past no longer have any meaning. What good is a stock broker in the apocalypse? Who cares if you were a billionaire if money is worthless, what we need are people that have practical jobs or at least are willing to help out. Specialists might be helpful, but a generalist or someone who can take care of a bunch of little things in the short term was a more valuable member of society. I hope that eventually we can get civilization back to the point where a person can have an entire career based on being a lawyer. The reality of the situation dictates that the skills of a lawyer may not be needed for a good while. You really can’t tell zombies that it is illegal to eat people and expect them to follow the law.

Even taking a longer loop back to the family farm in order to throw people and zombies off we still managed the trip in less than thirty minutes. Vehicular transportation is much nicer than riding a bike. I pull my van over in an empty field about half a mile from the mom’s house. Benji pulls up next to me leaving a good amount of space.

“What’s up brother? Why did we stop?”

“I don’t want to risk bringing zombies back to mom’s house from the noise of the engine. Do me a favor run back to the house and let momma know we are okay. Then send Roberto out with a couple hundred rounds of .30 .30 ammo for my rifle. A box of .45 shells would be nice too. I am going to sit here and set up to see if any zombies or people tried to follow us.”

“That sounds like a plan. Someone should be back, if not Roberto, in less than half an hour.”

Benji gathered his weapons and headed off for home. I had pulled the van off into the empty field for a reason. I wanted great sight lines. I climb up onto the top of the van and set up a shooting nest on the roof rack. I stand up and take a look around. I see a few zombies moving in my direction from where we drove here from town. I don’t hear any other engine noise or see anything else that would indicate that a sentient human followed us though. The zombies are at least half a mile to three quarters of a mile away. I wonder will they still shuffle this direction even though there is no more noise to follow?

I made a three hundred sixty degree scan just to be careful. I assumed that we had taken care of most if not all of the local zombies when we rescued Tracy’s group. There were not a lot of houses in this area. No more than a dozen within a mile or two. It was mostly agricultural fields and stands of timber. Since we had dealt with a little over 20 zombies, that should account for just about everything close by. There might be a couple trapped in buildings or some that have wandered in since then, but it was still early in this apocalypse and I think most would still be relatively close to their starting point. I took another look at the group of zombies that had been following us from town.

They were starting to disperse and wander off. There originally had been about 30 of them within sight. Now I can only count about a dozen still coming towards me. They were still four to six hundred meters away so no threat yet. In fact, I would rather take care of them now rather than later. However, I do not want to shoot the rifle as that would attract the ones that had already wandered off. I think I will just let them come closer and then take them out with the .22 pistol. Once they are down I can pull the van forward 50 meters to avoid the smell of the bodies.

With my plan in place it was just a matter of waiting. Ten minutes later I open fire when they are 75 meters away. This was at the edge of my range with a .22 pistol, but I figured that I had bullets to spare, and I could treat this as training. At the sound of the pistol the dozen zombies in the group started shuffling faster. So a .22 at 75 meters is loud enough to get their interest, but not loud enough to get them running yet. I empty my clip and note that I have hit several, but none fatally. I reload calmly and resume firing when they reach 50 meters. This time when they hear the pistol they lurch into a shambling jog/run type thing. That is most likely the top speed they have except for short bursts. It would be hard, but not unreasonable to outrun them in the short term. They most likely will keep going until their bodies or ruined though so endurance or the long race will be in their favor.

This round of shooting causes four of the twelve zombies to fall down. They will likely bleed out if they are not already dead. I reload a little quicker this time as they are starting to get very close. I am ready to shoot again when they are about twenty meters out. Ten more shots and five more go down. One of them still crawling. I reload one last time to take care of the last three when I hear another .22 start firing from behind me and to the right. I nearly fall off the van in surprise. I look over and see Roberto calmly shooting and taking care of the last three zombies. Man that is a lesson I need to remember. I was so focused on what was in front of me, I forgot to check my surroundings. If that had been an enemy instead of Roberto I may have been in serious trouble. I finish reloading and hop down from the van.

“I have the ammo you requested Mark, but it does not look like you are going to need it.”

“Roberto, good to see you. You’re right. They started to disperse about 800 meters out. I don’t think the sound of a .22 will attract them from more than about 200 meters at the most if that, so we should not need to worry. When we were shooting at the college though the larger calibers and echoes were bringing in everything from at least half a mile though.”

“So that means use a .22 whenever possible so you don’t get swarmed.”

“Yep, except when up close and you need the stopping power or you have to shoot at a distance a .22 is the safest ammo so far. A bow would probably be better, but it would take longer and you can only carry so many arrows. I figure for a three person hunting team, if one person had a bow, rifle and pistol, one had a shotgun, rifle and pistol, and one had a .22 rifle, a large caliber rifle and a pistol that would work best. That way you have a mix of silent, range, and stopping power.”

“’Good to know, now can we move these vans a bit to get away from the smell?”

We pull the vans forward about 50 meters and then wait another 15 minutes to make sure the brief engine noise was not enough to bring more zombies. Seeing nothing in that time we start walking back to the house.

“No problems at the house Roberto.”

“Just kids fighting and making up like usual.”

“Good. Is everyone on board with the coast plan?”

“I think that Tracy and her boyfriend, what is his name, Brian or something, are going to leave us and go and try to find her family.”

“Well I hate to see them go, but I understand the need to find family. What about her roommate Olivia?”

“Well as I see it, Olivia is older, a little wiser, has no ties of family other than some on the other side of the world she can’t get to, and may have a little crush on you, so she will stay.”

“Shut up, she can’t have a crush on me, I’m a grown man at 40 with a kid. What is there about me that is crush worthy.”

“Mark she is almost 30, and you did rescue her.”

I had nothing to say to that revelation. She didn’t look 30. This is something I was going to have to think about. At least it would be pleasant thoughts. As we walk back we engage in some small talk and make sure to keep our voices down and to scan around us just to be safe.

“Did you and the others come up with some local names of people we should check on?”

“Momma has them and wants to talk to you about something when we get back.”

“I haven’t done anything wrong, what does she want to talk about?”

“I don’t know, just remember that you are an adult now and can take care of yourself.”

“Yeah right, like that makes a difference to momma.”

Roberto just grins at my last comment I muttered quietly. Soon enough we came to the house. I left Roberto to make a round about the property and went inside to find out what momma wanted.

“Momma, Roberto said you wanted to see me.”

“Yes Mark, have a seat at the table and I will bring you snack while we talk.”

A snack would be nice. I left most of my breakfast back at the bleachers when I blew chunks and I was getting hungry again.

“Thank you, momma.”

I took a seat and watched my mom putter around and put together a few things on a plate and then bring them over.

“Now Mark, Tracy and her friend Brian are going to go looking for her family. I want you to help them out with some gear and travel arrangements.”

“Yes momma.”

“Next, we have come up with a list of people that would be helpful and some things that we need before we head down to the coast this weekend.”

“That is good, who are we going to look for?”

“Well the Johnsons down the road a bit, you know the soy bean farmers.”

“Okay that makes sense.”

“I think that the Ruiz and Shutter families from church would be a good addition.”

“What do they do?”

“Mr. Ruiz is in construction and one of the Shutters works at the pharmacy.”

“Those sound like valuable people to have.”

“Finally we came up with a group of three families that all have boats or at least some boating experience.”

“That sounds like a good idea momma, who are the three families?”

“The McCoys, they live down in North Augusta near where Benji lives. The Sanders live down near Hilton Head, we can check on them on the way down. Finally, I think that we should go check on the Wilkinson’s.”

“I am sorry momma, I will help the others, but there is no way I am going to check on, invite, or have anything to do with the Wilkinson’s and you should know it.”

“Mark, that happened a long time ago. You need to get over it. The Wilkinson’s have a boat they use on the weekends so they all know how to operate it.”

“That is great, fantastic for them. If they show up, I am leaving. I cannot and will not trust any of those people ever again. You are family momma, so I need you to understand this. I am not joking. If I see a Wilkinson, I might just shoot them on sight. There is no more law and that would at least leave me satisfied.”

“Well I already sent Jillian and Brittany over to check on them so you are going to have to deal with it.”

I said nothing else and just stood up to leave.

“Where are you going?”

“Momma, I am packing up Betsy. I will have the courtesy since you are my momma to not shoot them if they show up. If I see them however, I am leaving.”

“Get back in here young man!”

I loved my mom, but this was too much. I just shook my head and went out to pack up Betsy.