I am continuing our 'back story' while I am off duty and 'resting'. Nothing of any importance is going on here, so we are taking a much needed break...for now..
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The trip from the Depot to my brother-in-laws house was something I had yet to prepare for, even with all the TV and movies I used to watch about the undead. After speeding through the crowd at the hospital we made it through town without incident. At the edge of town we saw a minivan and a car heading towards us. I flashed my lights and stopped the Humvee blocking just enough of the road to make the others to stop. I got out and kept my hands in the air; I heard John shift behind me and got behind the wheel. I walked slowly up to the van and I could see inside it was a man and woman with a small child in a car seat. The back of the van was stuffed full of boxes and personal items. They looked fearful as I limped up to the van, I still had my hands out and away from my sides. I smiled and nodded, then pantomimed rolling the window down. The woman looked terrified as the man rolled the window down, behind them another two men got out of the car (one held a shotgun) and moved slowly up to me.
‘Why are you blocking the road? I need to get through.’ He said, his voice strained. The man with the shotgun, dressed in ‘farmer attire’ (jeans, work shirt, boots and beat up baseball hat) echoed his sentiment the other man with him spoke up and made me look at him.
‘Hope you’re not planning to rob these people. We gotta get to the hospital, my boys sick.’
I looked from one to the other. I explained what I had seen, no matter how crazy it sounded, they should not go into town unless forewarned and armed. They should not attempt the hospital at all. The sick child sat coughing loud enough for me to hear him from the car. I hoped it was not ‘turning’ everyone into these things. I really hoped for their sake it wasn’t. The man in the van was in a panic now.
‘We came from Lexington. It’s really bad in the city, we lived just on the outskirts and it is getting really scary. Where can we go?’ I asked him if he was familiar with our little town. He shook his head. I told him about our little group at the Depot and gave him some simple directions he could follow to get there. He thanked me and asked if I was going back now, I told him in a while, so he should go on and go ahead. I waved at John and he moved the Humvee out of the way and came up behind me. When the van was gone I looked at the other two. Seth and his son Jason. The little boy was Tommy. They told me he was not feeling good and running a fever. I shivered even in the cool air of the day. The story unraveled that he was sick for about two weeks now and was sent home from school. They said it was viral pneumonia. (At the time we were not sure how this sickness spread, so I was really wary of them. I know now I was acting foolishly, but we were all scared in the beginning of what we DIDN’T know.) I asked them have they been in town recently and they told us no. They were from a tiny town called Gravel Switch and didn’t come here that often. Most of the neighbors had either left or boarded themselves in their homes and would not come out to help anyone. By this time the Propaganda Machine was in full swing, the few times you got news at this point was all this CDC sponsored crap.
I asked, why the shotgun? Seth said it just didn’t feel safe, and he had heard some strange things the last few nights. After a bit of talking I knew a Viet Nam Vet when I heard one, the paranoia was there but so was the caution. He said it was just too quiet. I stood at a crossroads in my mind. They knew how to get to the Depot even though I did not specifically ‘tell’ them how to get there, they overheard me. My curiosity won over my common sense and I went to see the boy. He looked miserable. They ran out of anti-biotics about 4 days ago and the doctor never returned their calls. I think I know why now. I told them to head to the Depot and tell them I sent them. We shook hands and their faces lit up with gratitude. They hurried back to their car and drove off quickly. I walked back to the Humvee and got into the passenger side. I grabbed the radio and alerted the Depot about the people I sent and especially the little boy. The Major would have to decide what to do with them. I am glad I am not him. We have 4 people that are medical go-to people. Two paramedics that were on the same fire station crew from Harrodsburg, one of the National Guardsmen was a trained medic, and a RN from a local doctors office. Hopefully between them they can come up with something to help the child. Thinking on this, I was thinking of swinging by the new CVS to ‘collect’ some stuff. John thought it was a good idea.
I showed John how to get to our destination, and within about 5 minutes we were there. The house looked dark. Their Explorer was gone, but their van was still there. We stopped and I pulled my 9mm from the center console and racked a round into the chamber. John followed suit and checked his revolver and loaded some more bullets into it. The front door and the windows were intact which was a good sign. We walked around to the back, where I knew they kept a spare key, and was stunned by what I found. The back door was laying in the yard, the one window shattered. I walked in cautiously and as quietly as I could. John watched my back and looked around. Inside the house was trashed. Closets torn open, desks rifled, and anything of value was gone. Well anything of value and easy to carry. I walked through his office, which was the hardest hit, then his living room, then upstairs to the bedrooms, dreading every step. Clothes lay all over the upper floor, small items, and toys were strewn about. The bedrooms were ransacked. Well at least they didn’t appear to be home when this happened. I told John to go down and check the detached garage, but to watch his ass. I looked through the items and noticed no suitcases were anywhere. This gave me hope and I thought about something, snapping my fingers. Running back down the steps, well, as fast as I could, I went back to the kitchen. The power was off, and I went to the far room where the switch box was. The breakers were thrown to the off position, which gave me more hope. Switching them on, I walked back into the kitchen and noticed the red blinking light on the answering system on the phone. I punched the button and his voice told me they took the Explorer to get his wife’s parents. Mount Sterling. Not a quick trip, especially if they stayed away from Lexington, which I hope, he was smart enough to do. He was smart enough to say the date and time. Tuesday, 6PM. He had been gone five days. This is not good. I tried his phone and got a fast busy signal. Lines were up but one of the controller boxes were down or no one manning a center somewhere. I tried my cell phone. It connected but no answer to his phone. Damn. I erased the message and left one of my own. I looked in the kitchen cabinets and in the debris found a new pack of batteries and slipped them into the answering machine.
I walked out and found John sitting on the back deck in a lawn chair smoking a cigarette. He was watching the backyard where it abutted a horse field. He motioned for me to look out there. I did and saw a lone figure in the tall spring grass, moving erratically but slowly.
‘I think it’s one of them.’ He said patting his revolver on the little plastic table in front of him. The person or thing was a good 200 yards away and moving in strange little circles, never really getting any closer. I stopped and listened. It was so quiet you could hear the power lines hum. I haven’t heard that since I was a child on our farm. I tapped John on the shoulder and held up my finger. He squinted and then got the idea. He concentrated on listening.
‘No birds, no nothing.’ He said and I nodded. He spoke almost in a whisper. I smiled back at him and said, ‘I hope they cannot smell cigarette smoke.’ I nearly laughed out loud as John hurried to stamp out the cigarette and clear the air around him by waving his hands.
‘C’mon, let’s go. They’re gone. They left for Mount Sterling Tuesday night.’ I told John the rest of it when we got in the Humvee. The thing in the field looked up when I started the engine, causing John to pull his revolver and put it in his lap. I backed out of the driveway and headed back to town. The houses along his street looked to be all empty. No open doors, but I bet they had been robbed, everyone of them.
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