Chapter 15

Recruitment

The two police officers followed by a couple of other people step outside.

“Mark is it?”

“Yes officer.”

“You realize that you just killed over a dozen people.”

“Whoah, stop right there officer. The president himself declared that anyone in stage 3 or later of the infection was to be put down by any citizen without repercussion. This went out before communications went down. Did you people not get that word?”

“No we got that, but you still killed people.”

“No sir I did not. When the law of the land says you are no longer a person and gives me permission to put them out of their misery I am not going to object. Do you think that I should have just let them walk up and kill me?”

“Well no, but why did you not subdue them?”

“Are you serious? They are ZOMBIES! There is no subduing. There is running, hiding, and fighting. That is it.”

“They used to be human.”

“A corpse used to be human too. A steak used to be a cow. There are a lot of things that used to be something. The point is they are NOT that thing now. If you are just going to argue with me than I can go and find some help somewhere else.”’

“You can’t just leave, I am going to place you under arrest.”

“For what.”

“For obstructing justice.”

“Your serious aren’t you. You really think that everything is going to go back to normal tomorrow or something. You do realize that social order has broken down, zombies are wandering the streets, and even the power went out this morning. Have you even had any contact with your superiors lately?”

The other cop who had not spoken yet chimed in, “Nate let it go. This man here is correct. We need to figure out what we are going to do next. Let him take anybody that wants to go.”

He then looked at me. “Mr. Evans we would appreciate any supplies you could give us. Most of the people are staying on cots in the gymnasium. Let’s head over there and give them the option of joining you or staying here.”

Man I was thankful that at least one of these people had a modicum of common sense. There was no way I was going to let some hick town bleeding heart cop arrest me. Seeing as how I outgunned him severely it probably would have gone bad quickly. Luckily it did not get to that point. The other police officer had “Nate” head back into the building and he personally led me over to the gym. I repeat my offer to the people there and add that I am not willing to split up families, if one comes then all come. This goes over well with everyone and soon I have four women and five men volunteer to go with me on the supply run. I escort them out to my vehicle and give them a quick speech.

“First off, my name again is Mark Evans. We will be going to the local Wal-Mart to secure some supplies. After that you need to make a decision whether to stay here or to continue to travel with me down to the islands to help start up a survival group there. I will explain more about that to those who wish to travel with me.”

They all nodded their heads.

“Now we have three options as I see it. First if you have a vehicle here you can bring it to Wal-Mart and we can travel in a convoy. Second, you can ride in the trailer and we can go and liberate some vehicles from the local dealership first and then go to Wal-Mart. Finally, we can just go to Wal-Mart with you all in the trailer and then fill it up around you and come back.”

“Will we be able to keep the vehicles we get?”

“I am not going to stop you and I already have Betsy so my vote is yes.”

I could see several eyes light up at this. They have a quick discussion and then announce. “We would like to ride to the dealership and then pick up some vehicles to help transport supplies.”

“Alright here is the deal then. I will give out two shovels, one pick axe and everyone can have knives from my supply. I would like them back when we are done. I do not know any of you well enough to give you a gun yet. However, I am willing to split the weapons we get out of Wal-Mart with you whatever they may be. When we get to the dealership you can help me deal with any trailing zombies or you can just wait for me to clean them up. Your choice. Load up.”

I was planning on using the dealership as part of their trust test. If they stepped up and tried to help, even if it was to point out danger than that meant they were at least a little trustworthy. If they watched me do everything then I really did not want them to join the group. I drove as quickly and as safely to the dealership I saw on the way here and pulled over in front of it. I only had about six zombies trailing me. I made sure they were at least 10 meters away from every part of the vehicle and jumped out with my standard load. There were two more now coming from the dealership in addition to the six from behind.

“Can you make sure to distract the two from the dealership while I take care of the six in the back.”

I say three gentleman and one lady move forward to do what I asked. I raised my rifle and took six quick but well aimed shots. All six zombies went down.

“Those may not be down permanently, someone go finish them off. Without waiting, I turned around and checked on the two from the dealership. I saw two guys beating on the head of one zombie on the ground with the shovel. My pick axe was embedded in the other zombie and the other two people were running around it in circles keeping it confused until it bled out. I walked up slowly and pulled the .22 pistol out. I placed two shots into its head and then one into the one the guys with shovels were hitting just to be safe. I checked back on the other group and saw that none of them had moved to make sure the other zombies were down. Oh well, I won’t be bringing them along. These four that stepped out to help though did excellently.

“Pick your vehicle and note the dealer tag. We will then go in as a group to get the keys. If you have a family, I recommend a van or SUV. If you are alone or with one or two people, I recommend a truck to haul more stuff.”

The nine people split up into two groups. Interestingly enough it was the four that got out to help and then the other five. Within ten minutes I had broken a door open and everyone joined me in finding the keys. Soon enough we were a convoy of ten vehicles instead of just one and a trailer.

“Alright everyone, to make things easier on all of us, we are going to drive into Wal-Mart then make a single lap around the building to check things out. If nothing horrible stands out then I suggest we use the loading docks for entry in the back.”

“Why should we listen to you?”

Well if it wasn’t one of the idiots who did nothing but watch.

“You don’t have to. Feel free to take off at any time. I am not you mother and I am not going to watch over you if you are going to do something stupid.”

He just huffed and then said, “Come on guys we don’t need this guys help.”

“You sure seemed to need it to get here.,” I said.

He did not say anything else and him and the five that stayed in the trailer left. The four that helped me just watched with me as they left the dealership in four sports cars and a truck. I could not believe it.

“Well you four don’t seem like total morons like those people so welcome to the team. By the way, does anyone have any idea what that was about?”

They all laughed. “That was the mayor’s son. He has been a thorn in our side for the past week. He thinks he is royalty or something. I am sure that he is going to either try and get to Wal-Mart first and say it is all his or his group will head off and try their luck in the big town of Charleston. He could not shut up about Charleston in the shelter.”

“Well let’s hope he picks Charleston, because I really don’t want to shoot him no matter how much an idiot he is.”

I am not sure if they believed me as they just chuckled. I was not kidding though. My group consisted of the three gentleman taking trucks and the lady grabbing an SUV. We headed out and I followed the plan that I gave them. I drove around the Wal-Mart and did not see any of the vehicles that had left with the other group. That was one less complication. I pulled up behind the Wal-Mart and reloaded my weapons before climbing out of Betsy. I called out, “Same plan as before.”

There were a few more zombies than at the dealership, but they were trickling in by ones and twos so it was not overwhelming. After we put down around fifteen there were no more.

“I recommend that we stick together at least until we clear the store.”

“That sounds like good advice.”

“We will clear and then head to sporting goods after grabbing shopping carts up front. Once we have you all geared up, then we can focus on supplies.”

My little group started out. One zombie stock boy in the back, put down with .22 pistol, reload. Exit the back through dairy, work our way through grocery, put down two more workers and five other zombies. We make it to the front where we each grab a shopping cart and I throw a few boxes of slim jims in. The others look at me.

“What I love slim jims and I don’t know how to make them. I will never give up an opportunity to refill my stock.”

They just smiled and shook their heads. We headed back through apparel, jewelry and then into electronics. Nothing. When we moved over to toys a young zombie came around the corner and knocked down one of the guys. The others quickly pulled it off and I put a .22 into its head.

“Damage report.”

“Twisted ankle and a minor cut.”

“Good, keep your eyes peeled, we are almost done.”

We finish off another ten zombies in the store before I am satisfied.

“Alright everyone, we may not have gotten them all, but I think we got enough that we can either split up or at least split our concentration after we get you all some real weapons.”

We headed over to sporting goods and I force open the register to get to the keys. With the keys I made sure that each person had a shotgun of their choice, and one rifle of their choice, no pistols were available at Wal-Mart. We all filled our shopping carts with accessories and all the ammunition we could fit and then take our first load back to the vehicles. After loading everything from the first trip up I asked them to split up.

“Remember that you can get some fresh food as the power just went out this morning, but it would be better to concentrate on things that last a long time like cereals and canned foods. Junk food is okay, but does not supply the nutrients you need. Avoid soda pop and stick to juices and water for liquids. If three of you would work together out front, I would like one to stay with me in the back. I am going to put some pallets together and then wrap them up and put them on the trailer. This is what I am going to leave at the school.”

One of the gentleman by the name of Hank volunteered to stay in the back and help me. The work was easy in the back as we just had to stack and then shrink wrap.

“Mr. Evans can you tell me a little more about your plan to go to the islands?”

“I don’t mind since you are working so hard. The plan is to head down to Andros Island in the Bahamas. It is one of the largest islands and is only 150 miles from Miami. It has fresh water, an established agriculture base and less than 8,000 people pre zombie so it should be easy to clear. It should be safer than most places and within scavenging range of a bunch of places.”

“You have really thought this one out haven’t you?”

“Yep I used to come up with these elaborate plans as a type of escapism. I never really thought the zombie apocalypse would actually happen though.”

“Why are you looking for more people?”

“I have family and a small group of people that is about two to three days behind me. For personality and conflict reasons with some of the group I left early to try and clear the way and prepare some stuff ahead of time. The main reason I am looking for more people is security. It will be much easier to rebuild and protect ourselves with a group of 50 to 150 people. Any smaller and security watches and labor become an issue. Much bigger and labor division and rules enforcement get more difficult. From everything I have researched and studied it seems like in an apocalypse scenario, 100 people is the ideal size for establishing a tribe with 25 to 50 new people added in each year until you reach between 500 and a thousand people. At that point it is better to split the group in two and start a new village and then trade between them. Keep doing that until civilization is rebuilt.”

Our discussion was interrupted by gunshots from the front of the Wal-Mart store.