Trying to Survive (Part 3) (12 page)

Chapter 17

   Since food and water wouldn’t be an issue for weeks, we all agreed the only times we stop would be to switch drivers and get more gas. The plan was to slow down whenever we hit populated areas, roll down the windows and listen for gunshots or any other signs of people. The amount of shredders would determine how long we stick around to search for survivors.

   Jenny and I studied the map awhile before we got back on the road. We didn’t want to go anywhere near Savannah, but we also didn’t want to stray too far west so we backtracked past Fleming and hopped on another small highway that passed right next to it.

   As Brian once pointed out, a very likely sign of any government established safe areas would be helicopters flying around. Highway-17 would allow us to pass close enough to Savannah to know if anything was going on without endangering ourselves.

   We were about to drive through the small city of Richmond Hill. We could have simply gone around, but it seemed to be a good place to look for more people. It was only slightly smaller than Hinesville, but as we entered the city limits it was easy to see it was nowhere near as densely populated.

   “Where are all the shredders? That building we just passed looked empty.” Walt remarked.

   Jenny said. “Does anyone see any of them?” She suddenly came to a stop. “Look over there.” She said as she reached out the window and pointed to her left.

   When I saw dozens of dead shredders baking on the concrete outside of a clothing store I immediately assumed it was the work of other survivors…
What else could it be?

  
Veronica blurted out “They’re dead shredders everywhere. It has to mean there’re people around!”

   “That just means we have to be even more careful. Running into other people isn’t always going to be a good thing.” I reminded everyone.

   As I really began to study the buildings, I noticed most of them were covered in bullet holes. Even most of the cars sitting around were hit by gunfire. “Look at all the bullet holes everywhere. There’s more than a few of them, and they’re well-armed.”

   Jenny pulled into the parking lot of a small grocery store. The car bounced around as she drove over two unavoidable bodies. Walt said “It’s completely emptied out.”

   “They have to have a rather large group to accomplish all of this.” Jenny replied as she backed out of the parking lot and continued on.

   Allen excitably called out and caused Jenny to swerve a bit. “Gun store to the right! Pinault’s Defensive Solutions.” He nervously laughed. “Sorry, Jenny.”

   Veronica barked “Fuck that! Let’s try to find these people. They’re obvious all working together to clean up this whole place – they should welcome us.”

   I turned back and said “We can’t just drive up to them.” I looked to Jenny. “We have to try and observe them from afar first.”

   “Agreed.”

   Veronica sighed “Yeah, I forget… we haven’t had any bad experiences with other people yet.”

   I could see the worry spread across Clara’s face as her eyes thinned and her brow slowly crinkled. She may have started to open up to us again, but it was clear that she was still intensely frightened of new people… If anything, I wished the others shared her level skepticism.

   The gun store was stationed at the end of strip mall, directly across the street from another strip mall. It was probably a waste of time since people had obviously cleaned out the area, but I said “Let’s check it out. You never know...”

   Jenny turned off the main road and slowed down to about 15mph. “Look at all the bodies and bullet holes in the walls. These people have used up thousands of rounds. No way that gun store has anything left.”

   After seeing that the gun store was empty and offered nothing but corpses, Jenny continued so we could check all of the stores. I said “They’ve been at this for a while. Everything of use is gone.”

   Jenny pulled back onto the street and came to a stop. “Driving around and looking for them will get us spotted… James, how’s your leg feeling?”

   “Pretty damn good.”

   “I haven’t seen a single live shredder yet… You and I are going on foot.” She turned back to the others. “Walt, you follow behind us in the car at least a block behind, and don’t move forward unless we direct you. Allen, you sit up front and be ready to fire if need be.”

   Walt snapped “What? But, all it takes is for one to pop out and you’ll be forced to shoot it and give us away.”

   “I don’t think we really have to worry about that… Whoever killed them all was very thorough. And they obviously live here, otherwise they wouldn’t have gone through the trouble to shoot every shredder in sight.”

   I opened the door and stepped out. “Let’s do it. Pop the trunk so we can swap out to the long range scopes.”

   As Jenny and I switched out our rifles, Walt came around back. “James, make sure to always stay on the right side of Jenny so she can watch your left.”

   “Already thought of that, believe me… It’s really not as bad as you think though. It’s back and to the left that’s pretty much gone. I can watch to the side just fine.”

   Jenny checked to make sure the old, bolt action rifle was fully loaded and said “Sorry Walt, but James is the only one here I know for a fact can make shots at over three-hundred yards while under pressure.”

   “What about Allen. His leg might not be a healed as he thinks.”

   Allen called back from up front. “The shooting range I used to go to was kind of small. The farthest targets were only 150 yards away.”

   Walt folded his arms over his chest. “What if you have to run? I think you’re getting ahead of yourself.”

   “I’m fine.”

   Jenny basically just blew him off and said “Okay, follow us to the main road and then stop. Don’t pull out until one of waves you on… James, we stop at every intersection and take our time to look around before we cross the street.”

   Walt thinned his eyes and began scanning our surroundings. “They might already be watching us.”

   “What do you suggest? We just leave? It looks like these people have succeeded in making this whole area safe. Look around.”

   “No, of course not… I just think wandering around in the open is a little risky. They can’t have killed them all.”

   I cut in. “Walt, remember what I said about all paths being covered in shit?”

   Jenny glanced over at me and frowned. Walt sighed out “Yeah” and went around the front of the car so he could get behind the wheel.”

   Before Jenny closed the trunk she called up to Walt. “Remember. Don’t go out on the main road again until we signal… Clara, Veronica. Stay low and keep your heads down – just in case. They might chose to let us know we aren’t welcome by firing a few shots.”

   She turned back and looked me in the eye. “You ready?”

   I nodded and turned off the safety on my rifle.

   “Just follow my lead.”

   “Of course.”

   Jenny stopped at the end of the street and brought the scope up to her eye so she could see farther down the main strip of town. “I don’t see anything but cars and bodies. There’s no movement at all... Let’s go.”

   As we came upon the first intersection I was already in a state of utter amazement…
They’re all dead. This whole town is empty... Maybe we really found something. Maybe no one else has to die…

   Jenny raised her rifle. “Okay, let’s take a minute to look around before we cross.”

   She leaned around the edge of the building to peer down the side streets and I checked straight ahead. “Nothing.”

   “Same here. Cross.”

   When we made it to the second intersection (in a long, long line of intersections stretching further than I could see) Jenny turned back and motioned for Walter to pull out and move toward us. When he got about fifty yards away she motioned for him to stop and stay near some parked cars to blend in.

   After about a half hour of robotically moving forward and checking every direction and store, I finally said “Maybe whoever did this moved on.”

   “That just wouldn’t make any sense. Even if there’re fifty of them, which I highly doubt, cleaning out all these stores would give them years of supplies. And why would they waste all this ammo on shredders if they didn’t plan on staying?”

  
Maybe they’re all dead
… “I guess you’re right.”

   “According to the map, there aren’t many roads leading into this city. So I assume they’d post up somewhere near the center so it’s easier for them to see people coming.”

   Just as I was truly beginning to think we were wasting our time, Jenny barked “Stop.” She came back behind the wall and said “I see a blockade… A good one. Like they raided a Home Depot and really put some work and time into it.”

   “Do you see any people?”

   “No, just about a hundred dead shredders in front of it. But I did see a rifle poking out from the top of the wall. Like someone just stepped away for a few minutes… We’re too close. We need to head back to the last intersection and go east so we can get a look from further away.”

   We started heading back to the SUV and she motioned for Walt to stay put. When we both jumped back in, he said “What happened?”

   Veronica and Allen leaned forward with anticipation. Clara didn’t look away from the window, but her right leg was shaking and she was biting her fingernails…
At least she’s not just sitting there like a zombie…

   “Turn around and take the next left. We found a big wall. They have a section of town blocked off.”

   Allen said “A big wall?”

   “It looks like it’s made from wood and large sections of metal roofing… They put a lot of work into it. To collect all the materials and get it built in such a short amount of time, to accomplish all of this… It has to mean there’re at least twenty of them or something like that.”

   I optimistically added “This really might be what we’ve been looking for.”

   Walt said “So, where am I going?”

   “I want to get about a half-mile away so we can spend the rest of the day observing. This might be too good to be true. Just go up one more street and make a left, but stop before you hit the next one. I can lean around the building and get a perfect view.”

   Veronica said “Why wouldn’t they welcome more people? I just don’t understand why anyone wouldn’t want to work together right now. It’s the only way to make it… People can be so stupid.”

   Allen scoffed “Some people are just pieces of shit… murderer’s, thieves… You get my point.”

   I said “Exactly. We shouldn’t even think about approaching them until we learn more than a little bit about them. Even if it takes a week.”

   “In the very least, we need to get a look at them. We might end up seeing military uniforms, cops and just regular, nice looking people.” Jenny remarked.

   I kept a close watch for any movement inside the buildings, but there was just nothing. Every single street was littered with bodies and shell casings, no matter where I looked. I suggested “Maybe a lot of them came from Savannah and then hooked up with another group here.”

   “I guess that would explain how there could be enough people to do all this.” Allen replied.

   Walt took his foot off the gas and pulled over to the side of the road to blend in with some other parked cars. Jenny said “Alright, James… Everyone else stay put for now.”

   I followed behind Jenny as we approached the edge of the building at the corner. I checked through the windows of what appeared to be a bakery while Jenny started to inch her way out into the open so she could get a better look at the wall.

   Before she raised her rifle, she just barely leaned out to get a glimpse. When she kept leaning out and brought her rifle around, I assumed there was no one in sight. “Anything?”

   “Not yet.” She brought the scope up to her eye. “That rifle is still leaned up against the wall.”

   “Maybe whoever they have on watch is taking a shit.”

   “They must feel pretty comfortable to only have one man up on that wall.”

   “You know, that might not be the only one… Do you see any kind of entrance?”

   Jenny paused for a few moments. “Now that you mention it… No, I don’t.”

   “They would have to build more than a few to box themselves in. We just need to find the main one that they use to come and go.”

   Jenny lowered her rifle and came back behind the building. She looked to the ground and began slowly shaking her head. “How could there be so many people here?.. I mean, I could see one wall going up, maybe two, but it hasn’t even been a month. And they have to be at least ten feet tall… How could there be several more unless they had dozens of people?”

   “It’s hard to believe… but there it is. Only way we’ll know is if we make contact with them.”

   “Yeah. We keep going. Go back to the car and tell Walt to start following us again.”

   I purposely jogged over to the car to get a good sense of how my leg was feeling. There was a little pain when I really put some strain on the muscle, but I honestly felt like I’d be able to run for a decent distance if need be. I might pay for it later, but it was definitely possible.