Total Apoc Trilogy (Book 3): Horde Ravaged (5 page)

            The plan was to raid abandoned houses for canned food. So far every house we'd checked had food available. I was confident we could reach Plano without starving.

            Each of us still had a LBE harness and belt, too. The magazine pouches were filled with full magazines, and we had small canteens and our pistols on the belt too. Over time, we'd lost all of our steel pot helmets, but Olivia still had her helmet liner. She only wanted to wear her cap.

            "Wear it," I insisted when she balked. "I don't want anything to happen to you."

            "Okay, you two hurry up and kiss, and then we can get the hell out of Dodge," Ralph said. He was looking at the approaching zombies. Somehow their number increased to thirteen. "Maybe they are breeding. Like rabbits."

            "I hate zombies," Olivia grumbled.

            "Ralph, do us a favor," I said. "Hope up into the jeep. Swap out a new barrel, and kill them."

            "My pleasure!"

            Ralph switched out barrels far faster than I thought possible. He had a look of ecstasy on his face as he swung it around and opened fire. The zombies were all dead before he really got started. So he just squeezed off the rest of that can of ammo. His last hurrah with his baby.

            "I'm going to miss that gun," he said, sounding so sad.

            "If we find some horses on the other side of that hill, we'll come back for it and more of our stuff," I said. It started walking to the west. Well, limping. "Let's go."

            "Hey, get the first aid kit," Olivia said. "Let me look at that wound."

            I argued we didn't have time, but neither of them would let me continue until she cleaned out my wound, disinfected it, and put a bandage on it. The disinfecting part hurt like hell.

Chapter 7

            We didn't find any horses. We'd forgotten that zombies eat anything they can catch, and all livestock is fenced in. The only advantage we gained by the jeep's loss was we weren't confined to the road. It wasn't easy trudging through mud, but we were able to avoid a few more places that looked occupied. In the jeep we would've been forced to drive right past them.

            "What city is that? I don't normally come this way when going home," Ralph asked.

            I didn't have the foggiest idea. Geography was not my forte. It wasn't a particularly large city, but it did have a tall downtown and some high rises scattered around further out. In our rush to leave the jeep, we'd left the map behind. I planned to remedy that oversight at the first gas station we found.

            "We're lost," Olivia said.

            "No we aren't," I said.

            We'd been walking for two days. I was tired and not in the best mood. It was my turn to carry the pack. It was excruciatingly heavy.

            "Okay, if you say so," she continued. "Where are we? What city is that?"

            "I don't know."

            "We're lost," Ralph said.

            "Fine. Let's get unlost," I said. Using binoculars, I looked the city over. There was movement inside, but we were too far away for me to distinguish survivors from zombies. It wasn't a lot of movement, but I assumed the worst. "Do we want to go wide around it? Or skirt the city to raid houses for food?"

            "Food," Ralph said. "My belly's rumbling."

            Olivia nodded. That was my vote, too. There was food in every house we found. All total since losing the jeep: One house. There weren't a lot of people living on that road. Of course, there were other homes but they all appeared to be occupied. Avoiding other people was more important than food. At least so far.

            I led the way toward the city. We started around north of the city since the road appeared to be entering the northern side. The hope was we wouldn't be taken as far off course that way.

            "We need to find a gas station," I said. "There are probably several major highways going through, so we want to make sure we know which one to follow."

            I was pretty sure it would be the most inconvenient road out of the city, too.

            "And better pain killer meds than aspirin," Olivia said, looking at my hip.

            My wound hurt, but it wasn't as bad as she thought. The aspirin helped. A little. I was pretty sure that "walking it off" helped a lot. It actually hurt the worst after we'd been idle a while resting. A more powerful pain killer wouldn't hurt, either.

            We weren't on the road, but a couple hundred yards to the north of it. It was easier to walk on pavement, but it was impossible to find cover if a hostile group of survivors suddenly appeared. Out in the wheat fields all we had to do was drop flat on the ground and no one could see us. America's amber waves of grain were saving our butts.

            Also, Ralph couldn't walk on pavement while barefooted.

            It hadn't rained in two days, so the ground was slowly drying. We made pretty good time toward the city. I was in the lead, with Olivia to my left rear and Ralph to my right rear. That’s how we played the game of Zombie Hunter for years, and it's how we traveled in the real world now. It made us feel safer.

            As we neared the city, I kept us on course by using a rather tall building on the outskirts as a landmark. I assumed it was a bank. Most tall buildings in the suburbs were banks. To my surprise it was right at the edge of the built up area of the city.

            "Farmhouse," I said and pointed. "Let's check it out."

            "If it's clear, do you want to stay and get some sleep?" Olivia asked.

            I looked up at the sun. It was late afternoon. We'd reached the city's outskirts, so it was time to turn northward. We also preferred traveling at night, so the farmhouse would be perfect for catching a few hours sleep.

            "Sounds like a plan."

            "I hope there are horses," Olivia said.

            None were in sight. I couldn't imagine there being any. There was a large white-painted barn, and several other outbuildings. The house itself looked typical of early 20th Century farmhouses, two stories with a wraparound porch. There were lots of really big oaks scattered around the farmyard. Barbed wire fences separated the farmyard from the fields.

            We moved closer in crouched positions, weapons at the ready, fingers on triggers. Olivia had her M16A2 strapped across her back. She preferred the sawed off shotgun. It was better at close range. A shuffling sound reached us as we reached the fence.

            Dropping to a knee, I held my breath and listened. Ralph and Olivia came up to either side of me, dropping to a knee as well. Some muffled banging reached us, allowing me to zero in on where it was coming from. There was an earthen pile just inside the fence that I realized was a storm shelter.

            A young redheaded girl came out, almost like she was emerging from a grave. It was appropriate, since she was a zombie. An anguished look spread across Olivia's face. The children still upset her. They were all zombies to me.

            I held up a hand to keep anyone from shooting her. If she was alone, there was no reason to alert others in the area that fresh meat had arrived. She turned south, away from the house and outbuildings. A moment later two more joined her, both twenty-something women. They shuffled out too and vanished down the tree-lined road.

            "Houses," Ralph said even as I noticed them.

            The tree-lined road had hidden a suburban subdivision from us. It looked like low-end track houses. I guessed they were small two and three bedroom brick homes, and probably older than us. We waited a bit longer, and when no other zombies were seen or heard, we slipped through the fence and into farmyard.

            "Check the barn first," Olivia said.

            Didn't matter to me. She was holding out for horses, but the zombies would've eaten them if there were any. The barn held some really nice tractors and other equipment, including a late model pickup. It was new enough the EMP probably ruined it. There was a trio of three-wheel ATVs, and a four-wheeler with a roof and seating for four. None of them had keys.

            "We'll check for keys in the house," I said.

            There were no horses or stalls to hold them in the barn. I didn't see any stables on the property; we headed for the main house.

            "Both front and back doors are open," Ralph said. "You want me to go in alone to check for our little friends?"

            "No, we'll all go inside," I said. "Slow and carefully."

            A zombie wail off in the middle distance made me jump. We gave the farmyard one last look over, and then I led the way inside. Our boots were loud on the wooden porch. Maybe barefoot Ralph
should've gone in first.

            We entered like we moved across the land, I went straight in, Olivia came next and turned left, and Ralph followed and took the right side. The stairs were right in front of the door, with the living room to our right and the dining room to the left. All of the furniture was flipped and torn up. There was blood on the walls, floor, and ceiling. I noticed bullet holes all around, too.

            "At least they went down with a fight," I said.

            There weren’t any sounds inside the house. Our experience showed zombies were not quiet. They stomped around and attacked immediately. No laying in ambush.

            "See if we can close and lock the doors," I said. "Olivia, lock the front and I'll go lock the back."

            The back door opened into the kitchen. It was broken off all but one hinge, and the jam was damaged. Someone jimmied it open. Probably other survivors looking for food, guns, and ammo. The pantry proved that theory right. Empty. I opened the fridge, and the most god awful stench assaulted me. I slammed it shut.

            "Find any food?" Ralph asked as they joined me.

            "Cleaned out. That back door was forced open and damaged, so I can't close it."

            The door down to the basement was open, so we checked it out. Laundry and storage. Nothing to eat. No weapons. So we headed upstairs. The bedrooms were tossed worse than the living room. The mattresses were cut open. All of the clothes were pulled out of the closets and left on the floor.

            "Wahoo!" Ralph called from the other room.

            We rushed over to the front bedroom. He was sitting on the ruined mattress and pulling a pair of socks onto his still muddy feet. A pair of work boots sat on the floor before him.

            "They fit," he said, beaming with joy.

            While he was busy, I took Olivia to check the only bathroom in the house. We wanted medical supplies. It wasn't in the stars. Even the bathroom was smashed.

            "I get the impression someone was a little ticked off," Olivia said. "Hey, here's an empty Vicodin bottle. Maybe we can find a pharmacy that hasn't been looted for some really good pain killers."

            Worth checking, but I couldn't imagine gun stores or pharmacies being spared a good looting. Even during the apocalypse some people would want to zone out on drugs. Maybe even more so.

            Olivia and I entered the last bedroom, which was setup as an office. It was trashed, too. She went over to the window.

            "I can see downtown from here," she said. "It kind of looks familiar. Could this be Jackson?"

            Jackson was a city of a few hundred thousand north and east of our hometown. If that was Jackson, then we were closer to home than I thought. A few hours' drive, if we could get a running automobile. The ATVs out in the barn would get us there pretty quickly, but weren't anywhere close to being as fast as a car or pickup.

            "I haven't seen any keys in the bedrooms or downstairs," Olivia said as if she'd read my mind. "Maybe someone took them to test the ATVs and they wouldn't start."

            Didn't matter. Without keys the ATVs were dead to us.

            "Shame none of us knows how to hotwire them," I said, looking at my friends hopefully. Olivia shrugged and Ralph frowned. "Didn't think so. So, do we rest here a few hours?" I looked out the window. From the 2nd floor we had a much better view of the subdivision across the street. "Or do you want to look for a house that hasn't been looted to eat and rest inside?"

            "Move on," Ralph said. "Nothing here for us. Even the beds are trashed."

            "Agreed," Olivia said. Her eyes narrowed as she looked down in the farmyard. "Shit."

            Ralph and I pressed up against the window. There they were. Zombies. Had to be over twenty of the stupid bastards. Worse, they were headed for the house.

            "Well fuck me to…"

            "Hush. Ralph will make an obscene comment."

            "You know me so well," he said, grinning. Then his grin turned into a scowl. "Looks like we get to kill some more semi-dead monsters."

            There was no back stairs. So we charged down the stairs and straight into zombies entering the house. There were too many to fight, but we didn’t have a choice. So we fell upon them with machetes. Why waste ammo? Gunfire would just attract more of them.

            I stood directly in front of the door, with Olivia to my left and Ralph on the right. They came through the door one at a time. We hacked them down, blood splattering ever us and everything. That might have been the most blood ever. We were mostly severing jugulars veins and carotid arteries in their necks.

            Bile scorched my throat. The stench sickened me more. Finally, I couldn't take it anymore. I waved them toward the kitchen, and stayed behind just long enough to decapitate another one. We left a pile of dead blocking that door.

            The remaining zombies stayed focused on getting through that door. The sound of glass breaking echoed through the house as we reached the back door. Olivia quickly led the way to behind the barn. We stopped to see if any of them were following.