Lake Yixa (12 page)

     
Jeremy and the
kids started down the small drive. She took one last look and started to
follow. They were almost out of view of the house when Tux came running up.

     
"Go home,
Tux," Sarah said, but Tux didn't listen. He jumped on top of the cart and
sat down next to Zoe.

     
"I don't
think he is going to stay here alone," Jeremy said.

     
"Give me a
few minutes," Sarah said as she jogged back to the house. She returned a
few minutes later with the cat food in hand.

     
They made it to
the road and followed it west, away from town. They set up camp each night and
made a large fire, not caring if someone saw it. They were more worried about
the wild animals that could have been turned. They took turns keeping watch,
sleeping for a few hours and then waking the other person up.

     
Tux turned out to
be rather helpful. His hair would stand on end, his tail would get puffy, and
he'd hiss any time a rabid animal came around. They had to fend off at least
three over the two days they spent out on the mountain roads.

     
They didn't come
across anyone while they traveled. There were no cars and never any houses.
They saw a few roads that would branch off, and Jeremy would take the bike
without the cart and see if there was anything to search. Most the time the road
just went on for ages. He’d turn around after about an hour of riding.

     
Sarah would stay
with the kids and hide off of the road. She’d have Matt read softly to Zoe
while she kept an eye out. They had never run into problems. On the third day,
they found themselves only twenty miles from a town. Sarah was happy to finally
hear a town wasn't far out. The town
sat
in a valley below the
mountain
road they had been following.

     
The town was much
larger than Moosetan and, while it looked like half of it burned to the ground,
the other half looked somewhat okay. They could see tiny dots standing around
that made Sarah’s stomach drop, and Jeremy let out a groan. Zombies—hundreds of
them. There looked to be no easy way around the town if they wanted to skip it,
but they had no choice but to stop and look for supplies. They had eaten their
last can of food the night before, and all of them were hungry.

     
They were about a
mile from the town
when they came across a small park overlooking
the town.
They made camp at it and cleared the few zombies that stood around. A
car sat
in the parking lot
.
It
didn't have food or any other supplies, but it would be okay to sleep in for
the kids.

 
    
Jeremy stayed with the kids as Sarah went
and gathered a bit of firewood. When she returned, Jeremy had set up the
blankets in a tent-like fashion over part of the car.

     
"I will go
into town tomorrow," Jeremy said. Sarah looked over at him. She had
learned a lot about him. He had met his wife on a train on a random trip to go
see Seattle. He had been a software engineer for one of the biggest companies
in the Northwest.

     
"Okay,"
she said. She let him take lead on most things now.

     
"I will check
a few of the outer houses and slowly work my way in. We may be here a few
days."

     
"That's fine."
Sarah had withdrawn into herself since leaving Liam's house. She sometimes
wished she would have been killed too. Even though Jeremy tried his best to
make her feel better and ask questions about her, she’d just change the subject
to him, the kids, or any topic to avoid talking about her.

     
The sun was low
and on the far end of the valley, its golden rays flooding the valley and
washing over the town.
It is beautiful
,
Sarah thought. If it wasn't for the zombies she could see, she would be happy
to stare at it for hours, but the sight of the Dead moving about sickened her.
Sarah
tried not to think about all the lives lost and now gone, and who they were
before it happened
—
husbands, wives, friends, and coworkers.
Why did so many have to die?
she asked herself daily.
Why
did Liam have to die? Not even by a zombie but some asshole with a gun.

     
Every day a little
part of her would get angry, and she’d clench her teeth. She’d do her best to
fight it back, but she knew sooner or later the anger would take her.

     
After they made a
fire, Jeremy went to a
couple
of the outer houses. He
returned just after dark
.

     
"It's not a
lot," he said
as he sat down next to the
fire. He opened
up a small cloth bag
and
pulled out the two cans of food and tossed them to
Sarah. Sarah
checked the date in the firelight.

     
"
Still
good and
beef stew," Sarah said aloud. "Two cans of it. That's a great
find."

     
"I also found
this." Jeremy held up a revolver. "It even had fifteen rounds with
it."

     
"Wow,"
was all Sarah said.

     
"Yep. I think
this town is going to be good for us."

     
Sarah opened one
of the cans, and the small group ate it before it was even fully warmed. They
all agreed they would find more food in town. Sarah made the second can of
stew. After they finished, Jeremy put the kids in the car for the night to
sleep. Tux climbed into the car with them and curled up next to Zoe and across
from Sarah.

     
"You can have
the rifle back," Jeremy said as he started to clean the revolver in his
lap. Sarah had let Jeremy use the rifle most of the time. He was a much better
shot than her. Even though she had gotten better, he still knew what he was
doing.

     
"All
right."

     
"I'm more of
a handgun person. I had a small collection
of them before they got
stolen.
"

     
"
That
sucks," Sarah said before adding, "
I collected books
.
"

     
"Oh? Like
rare old ones or just whatever you liked?"

     
"Mostly what
books I enjoyed," she said, looking down at the one in her hand. "I
had a few out-of-print ones, but I don't think they were worth anything."

     
The two of them
talked about nothing for a few hours before turning in for the night. Sarah
took first watch, and Jeremy slept in the passenger's seat.

     
Sarah looked up at
the night sky. It was clear of any clouds. She
used to
love look
ing
at the stars.
At
one point, she heard a few sounds in the bushes, but nothing ever came of it;
though, it still put her on edge.
Soon, it was Jeremy’s turn to keep watch, and she woke
him. He smiled and got out of the car.

     
Sarah fell
asleep quickly. The soft car seat was the best thing she had slept on since
leaving Liam's.

     
The morning came
quickly, and Jeremy was already up playing a game with the kids. The sun had
fallen right onto Sarah, warming her up while she had been sleeping.

     
"You let me
sleep in?" Sarah asked as she got out of the car.

     
"Yeah,
figured you needed it," Jeremy said. "Plus, with
the
sun coming down
on the seat,
it
looked real
ly
nice. Didn't want it to go
to waste."

     
"Thanks."

     
"If you don't
mind watching the kids again, I'm going to see if I can find us some
breakfast."

     
"D
o
you want
me to go?" Sarah asked.

     
"You
sure?" Jeremy asked, looking at her.

     
"Yeah. I have
done it before," Sarah said. She hadn't talked about her time in Moosetan
with Liam other than they lived at the library and then made it to the boat.

     
"If you're okay
with it, sure, you can go."

     
"All
right," Sarah said, picking up the
canvas
bag and her
axe.

     
"I marked the
two houses I went to with an
X
,"
Jeremy said as Sarah turned and started down the road.

     
It didn't take
long before Sarah saw a house. There in the driveway were sticks making an
X
. As she moved on, she saw another
house. This one, too, had an
X
. The
next house she saw was much closer to town than the
previous
two
.
She could see a small group of zombies milling about by it. She hunched down
and moved into the field
beside the house.

     
The tall grass hid
her from sight, and she was able to move to
the house that sat on the far
end of the field.
It was a bit farther from town and only had a couple of
zombies. She made it to the edge of the grass next to the driveway
and
moved toward a
car sitting there.

     
Sarah could make
out two bodies in the front seat of the car as she got closer. She looked
inside. The male was face first on steering wheel. It looked like someone had
shot him in the back of the head. A woman sat next to him. She, too, had a
wound, but it was on the side of her face. Sarah looked into the backseat and
saw a third male, who had a gunshot wound to the side of the head. Sarah wiped
the window with her sleeve and saw a few boxes. She could make out what seemed
to be family albums, clothing, and other things people would take if they were
trying to flee a natural disaster.

     
Sarah and her
grandmother had to flee a wildfire once when she was a kid. She remembered
packing all the sentimental things in the car. The fire never made it to the
house, and that was the day her grandmother had given her the stuffed elephant.

     
Sarah wiped the
window again, hoping to see more. The bodies did make her sick, but she had to
make sure that there wasn't anything they could use. She spotted a small
handgun in the man's lap.
He had been wearing shorts and with
decomposition
. Things looked like a mess. The
handgun
didn't look to be in good shape.

     
She turned and
moved toward the back of the car. She would let Jeremy know about the gun and
let him figure out if it was worth it. A zombie stood close to the front door,
and Sarah looked around for any others.
Seeing it was clear of
zombies, she decided to take it out using her axe. Sarah
started moving
forward slowly.

     
"Ah!"
Sarah screamed, but she quickly cut it off. It was too late—the zombie by the
door heard her, but she had bigger problems. She hadn't seen the zombie on the
ground just on the other side of the car. It grabbed her leg and sent her
falling over. Gravel bit into one of her hands as she tried to catch herself.

     
Sarah kicked her
leg loose and pushed herself along the ground, kicking up dust and gravel as
she went
,
o
nly to
attract
more zombies from the
backside of the house. She felt her back hit the garage door with a heavy
thump. The axe sat a good ten to fifteen feet away now.

     
"Shit."

     
She moved to the
left, away from the few zombies coming from the backyard. The one on the ground
was partly on the axe handle
, and
she could
see blood cover
ing
the handle. She
got to her feet and went to the side of the garage, the zombies still following
her.
Sarah
circled around to the back fence. She pulled herself up and
over it and dropped down into the backyard.
Sarah
moved to the door of the
garage. She kicked it hard, and it flung open.
Maybe a bit overkill
, she thought as she walked in. It was dark but
for shafts of light coming in from the small windows that dotted the upper
wall. She saw a work bench and moved toward it. It was covered in
dust
and
box
es
. Clearly
nobody
ever
used it. She started to rummage her way through the boxes as fast as she could.
Sarah found
magazines, old tools,
and
Christmas lights
,
and
s
he tossed them
to the ground as she
searched
.