Z14 (Zombie Rules) (43 page)

             
I leaned my head toward Julie’s open window. “Stop about twenty-five feet away.” I said as I waved at him. He returned the wave with a single, slow nod.

             
“Good afternoon.” I said pleasantly.

             
“Yes sir, it is. Looks like the weather is finally turning for the better.” He replied. “The name’s Bo McClendon.” I introduced myself and the others. He nodded at Rowdy and addressed the women as ma’am as he tipped his hat. I was growing to like him already.

             
“Where are y’all from?” He asked.

             
“We live over by Nolensville. We’ve taken over the old Parson’s farm.”

             
Enlightenment dawned on his face. “I thought your name sounded familiar. You’re Rick Sander’s buddy.” I nodded. “How is the old fart?” He asked.

             
I slowly shook my head. “He died a year ago. He survived the plague, but I think his heart gave out.”

             
Bo shook his head and spat. “I’m sure sorry to hear that. He was a good man.”

             
I gestured at the farm. “Do you live here?” I asked.

             
“Nope. I could never have afforded a place like this. I have a small spread a few miles from here. I’m a farrier by trade and used to tend to these horses back in the day. I come by every so often to make sure they’re doing okay.” He hooked his thumb back at the mansion. “There are a few corpses back there in the mansion, but I have no idea who they are. I had to kill about forty or fifty of them infected things over the last year, but otherwise it’s pretty quiet in these parts. Y’all are the first people I’ve seen in four or five months. The last group I came upon was a married couple with a couple of children. They were half starving to death. I fed them and put them up for the night. Then they stole the rest of my food and took off.” He spit again. “I see cars driving by once in a blue moon, but I haven’t cared about interacting with anyone since then.”

             
“I can assure you, we’re not here to steal your food or anything else of yours. We’re doing okay in that regard.” I said.

             
Bo nodded. “I’m glad to hear it. What brings you folks out here?”

             
We took turns explaining everything to him. He was especially interested in turning the radio station to an outpost.

             
The six of us sat in front of the barn until late afternoon, chatting about our individual experiences.

             
“I’d been divorced about ten years, although my ex and I still fooled around from time to time. I had gone to her house one evening for dinner. When I got there, both her and our two daughters were infected. At the time, I had no idea what was wrong with them. Looking back, I was lucky I didn’t get bitten and infected.” He frowned a moment.

             
“One night, back when we were married, I came home a little late from the VFW. I was drunk and in a surly mood. We got in one of those heated arguments, she called me a foul name, and I slapped her pretty hard. The police got called, I got arrested, and we got divorced. She and I never really stopped loving each other though. I was set in my ways, she was set in hers, but we actually got along better after we divorced.” He smiled a little bit at some private memories.

“
When they attacked me, I got a little violent with them and managed to get away.” Bo rubbed his face and decided it was better to omit the part where he fought them off by bashing their heads in in with a croquet mallet. “I was certain the law would be coming to arrest me again, so I hurried back to my house, grabbed food and camping gear, and hid out for almost three weeks. When I ran out of food, I went back. I guess you guys know the rest. Things that were once people were wandering the streets, attacking any living thing in sight.” Bo bit his lower lip and shook his head.

“Yeah.”
I said. “This infection, or whatever it is, has apparently hit the entire world.” I looked at the horses in the stalls, contentedly eating grain. I wondered where he got it from. “Bo, we’ve got a horse that probably could use a new set of shoes.”

“I’d be happy to do it.” He replied.

“Prancer will love you for it!” Julie said cheerfully. Bo suddenly looked at her sharply.

“Would Prancer happen to be a pretty Appaloosa?” He asked.

Julie nodded. “She belongs to a man named Fred.”

Bo stared at her. “
Fred McCoy?” He asked. Julie nodded. “Is Fred okay?” He then looked at the rest of us. “He and I go way back.” Julie told him about Fred going to find his daughter. Bo’s face clouded up. “If anyone can find Betsy, Fred can.” We echoed the sentiment. I looked at the setting sun and stood.

“Bo, we
need to get home. You’re welcome to join us for dinner.”

“I believe I’ll take a rain check. I got some things to do. How about I meet you at the radio station tomorrow?” We agreed and bid our goodbyes.

As we made our way along Concord Road back toward Nolensville Pike, Andie sat up and pointed. “Well I’ll be damned. Rowdy is drawing them like flies.” Looking south along the Interstate, there appeared to be a caravan of two vehicles slowly making their way along. I estimated they were about six hundred meters out. Unfortunately, there was a line of zombies ambling along behind them, and they were driving slow enough where the zombies did not have much trouble keeping up.

“Those yahoos are going to bring all of those zombies right to our doorstep.” Rowdy said. “We sure didn’t think anyone would be so stupid, did we Hoss?”

“Nope.” I said simply, silently cursing myself for the oversight. “Get your Remington out, Hoss.” I said, as I retrieved my Winchester from its carrying case. I looked over at the girls. “Hold off on shooting with those M4s until they’re within three hundred meters. Rowdy and I will try to pick off as many as we can.”

Rowdy grinned with delight as he hurried ov
er to the edge of the bridge. He took his jacket off and used it as a buffer between the metal railing of the bridge and the stock of his rifle. We each took a moment to put our earplugs in. Julie watched us and readied a pair of binoculars. Andie walked over and stood beside Rowdy.

“I sure wish I had me
a deer rifle or something.” Mac lamented.

Rowdy fired first and watched through his scope a second before announcing, “Boom! Head shot!”

“You know, you’re a pretty good shot, when you’re sober.” Andie quipped. Rowdy pretended not to hear and took aim at another target.

We killed a dozen before they got within range of the assault rifles. I picked up the empty cartridges and pocketed them, hoping they were in good enough shape to use for reloading. Thanks to Captain Steen, we had plenty of ammo for the assault rifles, but
our supply of our other calibers of ammunition was dwindling quickly. It was time for us to start doing some serious house-to-house salvaging.

Julie and Andie adjusted their ACOG sights and started firing. They took their time, ensuring a good aim, and firing a single round for each target. I watched through the binoculars as they repeatedly made head shots. It made me warm with pride.
Rowdy glanced at me, grinning in pride as well. I handed the binoculars to Mac, who thanked me with a smile. I looked over to see Bo riding up on a horse.

“I heard the gunfire, what’s going on?”
He asked. I pointed out the two vehicles approaching and the zombies following them. He started to pull a rifle out of a scabbard, but stopped when Julie stopped firing and turned around with a grin.

“We got ‘
em all. Do you want us to start shooting the ones stuck in the cars?”

I shook my head. “We’ll take care of it later. It’s getting too dark now.”

Bo looked Julie and Andie over. “You girls sure can shoot.” He commented.

“My husband tau
ght me.” Julie said with a grin and slapped me on the butt.

“My Uncle taught me, but then I
had to kill him.” Andie said without a grin, only a blank expression. Bo looked at Rowdy and me. We both nodded.

“We’ll tell you about it sometime. In the meantime, let’s see who these people are.” I said.

“Yeah, and ask them why they didn’t kill any of those things.” Andie added as she slapped a fresh magazine in.

We watched as they finally made their way to the Concord Road exit and slowly worked their way to
ward us. The lead vehicle was a Toyota Tacoma truck, followed by a blue minivan.

“It looks like all women and some kids.” Mac said as she eyed them with the binoculars. Julie turned and waved, which caused Andie and Rowdy to wave. The cars crept forward, which seemed silly
at first. Then, I realized we were all armed. It might have been intimidating looking. I put my Winchester back in the case.

“Rowdy, hand your weapon to Andie
and walk with me.” I said, but Mac interrupted.

“I believe I know those people. They wer
e with the religious sect I told y’all about.” She walked with us toward the small caravan, which had stopped on the exit ramp. We stopped about halfway and waited, but they didn’t move. It was getting darker now and my patience was wearing thin. Mac waved them in, which seemed to be the invitation they needed. They finally drove up and stopped beside us.

Mac smiled and walked up to the driver. “Well, I’ll be! Y’all went and did it. Y’all left them.” The driver, a haggard lo
oking woman, perhaps in her late forties or fifties, got out of the Toyota and hugged Mac.

Rowdy walked up to the passenger
who happened to be a rather attractive woman in her twenties.

“
Howdy, I’m Rowdy.” I watched as he typically held out his hand and instead of shaking he kissed her hand instead. I walked up to the driver and Mac.

“This is Wanda.” Mac said.

“My name is Zach.” I didn’t bother holding out my hand. “While I can appreciate your caution, you ladies burned precious daylight by taking so much time to drive up here.” I pointed to the radio station. “Why don’t you ladies park your vehicles there and close the gate behind you. The fence will afford you some degree of protection.”

“Where are you going?” The driver asked. I looked closely at her.
The tone in her voice seemed to indicate I had breached some form of protocol.

“We’re going home. We’ll be back tomorrow and get acquainted then.”

“But we’ve got hungry children here!” She snarled at me.

“Hush, mama.” I heard the passenger say as I walked off before I said something rude. Rowdy
tipped his cowboy hat and hurried after me.

“Let’s get moving.” I said, and walked over to Bo. “If you want to talk to those people, be my guest, but we’re going home. We’ll be back around noon tomorrow. Depending on the amount of chores
I have waiting on me, I may not be with them, but we’ll see each other again.” We shook hands and I headed to the truck. The rest followed. Mac jogged over to me as I squirted my hands with sanitizer.

“If you don’t mind, I think I’ll spend the night here and get these people settled in.” She said. I nodded
in understanding.

“There’s a cooler in the back of the truck with some food. Take it with you.” I said. Mac nodded gratefully.
“Oh, I guess you better take one of the M4s with you too. These women don’t seem to know how to protect themselves.”

“I am much obliged Zach. You won’t regret it. I’ll see y’all tomorrow.” Big Mac waved and walked toward the group of women carrying the cooler over her shoulder.

             
Everyone was dying to go back to the radio station the next morning. Except me.

“You guys go ahead.
I’ll get the chores done and join y’all later.” I told them. Julie wanted me to go with them, but I shooed her away with the promise I’d be there by noon.

I accepted the fact
none of them, with the exception of Fred and Howard, had my work ethic. So, I toiled at the daily chores by myself, took the clothing off of the clothes line and folded them. Well, I took care of my clothing and Julie’s, the rest stayed put, and then spent a few hours reloading bullets. It was time consuming work reloading a bullet by hand, one at a time. I finally grew frustrated, jumped in Andie’s jeep, and headed out.

             
Andie was sitting by the gate with an M4 cradled in her lap. She looked up as I approached, but didn’t smile when I stopped at the entrance.

             
“Where is everybody?” I asked.

             
“They’re inside. Everyone watched Rowdy talk on the radio and now, who knows what the fuck they’re doing. They’re swooning around him like he’s some kind of fucking star.” I got out of the jeep and sat down beside her.

             
“I’ve been sleeping next to him for almost a month and he’s never tried anything. But, as soon as other women show up he’s flirting with every one of them. Hell, he’s been eye-fucking Cindy all day.” She said.

             
“I take it Cindy is one of the women in the group.” I said.

             
Andie chortled. “Yeah, she’s the brunette with the big store bought tits.” Andie stood suddenly. “I’m taking my jeep and leaving.”

             
I stood with her. “Where are you going, home?” I asked.

             
“No. I’m getting the fuck out of here. Julie doesn’t like me. Neither you nor Rowdy will fuck me. There’s no reason to stay here.” She had the same scowl on her face from when I first met her. I grabbed both of her hands. She struggled against me briefly, but I held on tight.

             
“Listen to me a minute, would you?” She stopped struggling and glared at me.

             
“If you want to leave, I won’t stop you, but I’ll certainly beg you to stay.” I said.

             
“Why?” She asked angrily.

             
“I can think of two very important reasons off the top of my head, you’ve saved my life twice already. I’d be dead if not for you. Julie and I consider you a very valuable part of our team. I have a lot of admiration and respect for you, Andrea.” I looked around and lowered my voice. “If I didn’t have Julie, I think things might have been different between you and me, you know?” She lowered her head and reluctantly nodded.

             
“But you’re in love with her.” She said.

             
“Yep, very much so. I think you’d be surprised to know, I love you as well, but more like a little sister.” She looked up at me. “Is that a bad thing?” I asked.

             
“I guess it’s okay.” She said quietly.

             
“Good, I never had a little sister.” I said.

“Zach, what is it with Rowdy? Does he like me or not?” Andie asked.

“I know he likes you and cares for you, but I think he views you more as a little sister as well.” She nodded in sad understanding. I looked toward the station building, nobody seemed to be watching. I gave her a kiss on the forehead. “C’mon, let’s go inside and listen to Rowdy’s bullshit.”

              I introduced myself to each woman. Wanda was the self-proclaimed matriarch of the group. She struck me as a bitter old woman. She didn’t bother thanking me for the food, and instead criticized me for leaving them alone and vulnerable the night before.

             
Cindy was her daughter. She had obviously taken the time to clean up. She was wearing clean clothing which consisted of tight fitting jeans with an equally tight fitting bright red polo shirt. She even had some makeup on. Andie was right. She was pretty, and had a very nice set of breasts which were stretching her shirt to its limits. She was unabashedly flirting with Rowdy and it was driving him nuts.

             
Rhonda was an eighteen-year-old redhead with lots of freckles. She was attractive in a unique way, but very quiet. She would answer you if you asked her a direct question. Otherwise, the only time she spoke was to the three children. She was wearing the same plain print dress she was wearing yesterday.

             
The children, I didn’t even bother remember their names. They were all little girls around two to four-years-old, and poorly behaved. Julie told me all of the girls were orphans.

             
And finally I met Kelly. She was raven headed with dark, smoldering eyes. She was the same height as Julie, and had the movements of a woman who maybe did a lot of yoga, which probably explained the yoga pants she was wearing. I guessed her age at no older than twenty. When Mac introduced the two of us, she hugged me close, and I mean close as in she pressed her entire body up against me. She ran her hands along my back and whispered in my ear.

             
“It’s nice to meet you Zach. Thank you for the food last night.” She held the hug a moment longer than necessary before letting go. I caught Julie looking at me with an arched eyebrow.

             
“It is certainly a pleasure to meet all of you. Could you tell me what led you to come up here from Birmingham?”

             
“We’ve already told that story.” Wanda said. “If you were here this morning instead of sleeping in, you would have heard it.”

             
I shrugged. “I guess I’ll have to speculate then. Let me guess, you were run off because of your caustic attitude.” Andie burst out in laughter. Wanda glared daggers of poison at me.

             
“They all belonged to the same church which evolved into a Christian survival group.” Julie said. “The men, and especially their leader, became more and more radical. They were expected to be subservient to the men and submit to polygamy.” Julie pointed. “Cindy and Rhonda were going to be married to one of the men in the group, who happened to be thirty years older than them. They finally had enough, packed up, and left while the men were off hunting.”

             
“Who was the poor bastard that was going to marry Wanda?” I couldn’t help myself. Andie laughed again. Even Rowdy chuckled.

             
“The preacher was my husband. He insisted on marrying Kelly. That was the final straw with me.” Wanda said with another cold glare. “I’m not a woman to be trifled with young man.” She said harshly.

             
Cindy continued the story. “We knew Big Mac was coming here. She had drawn a map for me. When we heard Rowdy’s sexy voice on the radio, we had to come see this man in real life.” The girls giggled. Wanda made a derisive snort.

             
I was growing tired of her attitude and decided to change the subject.

“Okay ladies,
I’m glad you’re here, but if you want to stay, you’ll need to earn your keep. Freeloaders are not welcome.” I focused my attention on Wanda. It was obvious she was the one who was going to cause problems. “Do I make myself clear?” She continued glaring and scoffed.

             
“We’re not freeloaders, and we don’t answer to you. Who do you think you are?” Wanda said. I stared at her pointedly.

“I’m the person who provided you with food last night, and now, Miss Attitude, I’d like to know how you intend to pay.
” They all looked at me as if I’d asked them to solve Fermat’s last theorem.

             
Wanda chortled. “Pay? We have no money, or anything else.”

             
“Not a problem. Since you don’t have anything of value to trade for, you can work it out in labor.” Wanda chortled. She seemed to think this was a joke or something. I ignored her and turned to the other women.

“
Rowdy and I set up a still out back which can be used to distill water. We put a storage tank in the kitchen. There are some buckets in the shed out back. Two of you get those, and go down to the creek, which is a couple of hundred yards east of here.” I said pointing. “You’ll need plenty of water and firewood. You have a day of distilling water ahead of you. You other two can use some of that water to clean up this station.” Rhonda and Kelly immediately stood up and began walking toward the door.

             
Wanda stood and snapped her fingers. “You two sit back down.” She turned her head and glared at me. “I don’t know who you think you are, boy. We’re not your slaves.”

             
“And we’re not a welfare agency. Keep in mind, you have no claim to this property.” I retorted immediately. “We used precious ammunition shooting zombies who were chasing you ladies. You’ve got shelter here and a full belly, thanks to our efforts. None of this is free, especially with such a disrespectful attitude.” She continued glaring at me. “You don’t want to work?” I pointed at the door. “Then get the hell out of here.”

             
Wanda looked around and fixed her attention on Rowdy. “Is this how you let boys act around here?” She asked him.

             
Andie jumped up. “You stupid woman, he’s no boy.” Julie stood as well.

“And I’m not going to sit here and listen to you speak in a disrespectful tone to my husband.”
She looked at me. “I’m going outside, but she better get a quick attitude adjustment before I shoot her.” Julie and Andie walked out together.

             
Rowdy held up his hands at shoulder level and shrugged. “Zach is in charge around here Miss Wanda, I accepted that when I signed on, and I haven’t regretted it for a minute. He’s a smart kid – eh, I mean, he’s a smart young man.”

             
“Momma, he’s right.” Cindy said. “We’re not freeloaders.” She looked at me. “I’ve done my share of distilling water. Show me where the creek is and I’ll get right on it. I’m not very strong though. Maybe Rowdy can help me with the hauling.” She said as she smiled coyly at him.

             
“Yeah, sure!” Rowdy said, almost a little too eagerly. As they started for the door, I heard a gunshot. I pushed by them as I ran outside.

             
“Fucking zombies.” Andie said as she pointed. We had forgotten to close the gate. Eight of them were currently walking in.

             
“Where the hell did they come from?” I asked as I grabbed Andie’s M4.

             
“No idea.” Andie said and reached for the rifle. “I can shoot them.” I ignored her. Wanda’s disrespectful behavior pissed me off. I needed to vent, and I could think of no better way than killing a few zombies. I fired eight rounds to their heads in a little over twelve seconds. I had a long way to go to achieve the level of Fred’s marksmanship level, but I was getting better.

             
“Wow Zach, you’re a good shot!” I looked over. It was Kelly. She was looking at me in wide-eyed wonder. “Were you the one shooting all of them yesterday?”

             
“It was all of us.” I said. “Which reminds me, why weren’t you guys shooting at them?”

             
Kelly shook her head. “We don’t have any ammunition.” She pointedly looked at Wanda. “We owe them our lives Wanda. We shouldn’t be disrespecting them.”

             
Wanda gave Kelly a hard look. It looked like a toxic retort was on the edge of her lips, but she managed to hold it in.

“The house could certainly use a
good cleaning.” She finally said.

Julie and I went back to the Interstate in our truck. I wanted to see where the hell those other zombies came from. It didn’t take much brain power to figure out. There were infected bastards up and down the Interstate. They were sitting, standing, leaning against cars, in cars, under cars, you name it. Most of them were dead, but there were plenty still living.

“When you drive up beside these cars, give me enough room so I can open the door
and jump in, if necessary.” I said.

“You got it babe.”

She slowly drove beside the multitude of abandoned cars as I walked along. There was a mixture of empty vehicles, vehicles with corpses, and vehicles with zombies.

“Zach, why are
the southbound lanes more congested than the northbound lanes?” Julie asked.

“I can only assume everyone was fleeing Nashville when the plague went viral.” I replied. “There was a chain collision, everyone was stuck, and then people started turning. I imagine it was pretty horrific.”

“Just think, you’re stuck in a traffic jam, and all of a sudden there are these fucking zombies everywhere. You don’t dare step outside of your car, but you look in your rearview mirror and your children are infected. You watch in horror as they jump over the seat and rip your throat out. Your last conscious thought is ruing the fact you let the little bastards ride without their seatbelts on.” Julie spoke like she was narrating a horror movie. I looked at her.