“There are some things I need to tell you.” I finally spoke. Maggie said nothing, but looked at me with calm acceptance at whatever I might tell her. “Two things, actually,” I began. “One, is that the sniper is alive and gunning for me.” I paused to let it sink in, but she seemed to already know that. “Was that in the note he left for you?” she asked. I glanced at her then returned my eyes to the road. “Yeah, seems that he's holding me responsible for the massacre of his group.” I looked down on the floor of the truck and spied the note in a ball by the door. Carefully I bent down and reached for it. Maggie's hand reached out and took hold of the wheel steadying the vehicle. After a momentary fumbling around I got the ball of paper in my fingers and picked it up. I took hold of the wheel and gave her the crumpled up note. She held it in her hand but didn't open it just yet. “What's the second thing?” she asked.
I swallowed hard. “This morning when that guy cut my throat, we all noticed that he was bitten right?” she nodded for me to continue. “I'm beginning to think he cut me with the knife he used to kill the zombie that bit him.” A glance at her and I saw the color drain from her face, her mouth worked soundlessly for a moment before she was able to breath the word “no”.
I pushed on, “I can't be sure, because he might've used another weapon, but I don't know if the sweat and the tightening in my stomach is from the infection or if I'm just scared shitless.” My mouth dried up making it hard to swallow. I looked for a bottle of water somewhere along the seat, looking everywhere except at Maggie. “Watch it” she said pointing at the road, I saw a body lying on the road and had to swerve to miss it. In the rear view mirror I saw Frank doing the same, still keeping pace with us. Frank's voice crackled on the radio, “Woah, you two better quit your flirting and keep your eyes on the road there!” his voice jovial and light. Maggie reached out and snapped off the radio. “Talk to me John.”
“R-read the note”, trying to speak with a dry mouth, “and where is there a bottle of water?” She searched for a moment then bent over and reached under her seat, rummaging around for a moment. She came back up with a plastic bottle in her hand. It was dirty but even I could see it was still sealed.
She handed it to me after opening the bottle and dropping the cap on the floor. She began to open the crumpled note as I drank deeply from the bottle. It was warm, flat but soothing. Maggie read the note for a few moments then put it down in her lap, clearly upset. She picked it up again and continued reading. When she was done she put it back down on her lap and looked out the window again, her hand smoothing the paper against her leg. The angle was hard to see but I noted a tear running down her face.
“Do you know,” she began her voice shaking, “before all of this... this shit happened. I was dating a guy on the base. We were together for only a couple of weeks but I was really starting to like him a lot. We never got around to... you know, but there was something. Then the base got over run and he was killed.” She turned to look at me, her eyes red and moist from tears she was trying to repress. “Now, you come into my life and I was just beginning to think...” she let the note fall to the floor and leaned over, putting her head in my lap and sobbed. I took one hand off the wheel and stroked her hair.
I heard a horn blowing and looked in the rear-view mirror and saw Frank closer behind us, with his lights on flashing high to low beams. Oh great, with her bending down with her head in my lap like that... I reached out and snapped on the radio. Frank's voice cut on instantly in mid-sentence.
“...uys need to cut that out I said, James isn't old enough to watch that crap going on ...and that's my daughter you're messing with young man!” his voice still full of good humor, obviously glad that we're all safe, back on the road again. I sighed deeply and tapped her on the shoulder. She nodded against my lap and sat back up. “Don't wipe at your face just yet, it doesn't look good.” I said before realizing what came out of my mouth then burst out laughing. Maggie gave me a puzzled look before turning her head and seeing out the back window how close Frank had his truck to ours and his lights flashing high to low. Confused only for a second then she giggled at first, then guffawed loudly as I was. Neither of us reached for the microphone because we were still laughing too hard to speak.
Our laughter tapered off quickly, too quickly as we allowed the circumstances come creeping back in. Maggie moved back over to her side of the truck, bent down and picked up the note and reached for the mike. Her voice dead serious as she spoke. “If Dad and James weren't behind us, I'd tell you to pull over, right now because I need you.” I looked at her for a long moment, then responded gently, “you wouldn't have to tell me to pull over.” Her eyes threatened to spill over with tears again as she held the mike to her mouth. “Dad, we have a serious problem.” Her voice held no teasing, no jest and Frank's response was just as serious. “What is it?”
Maggie took a breath and began. “Dad, the sniper is still alive. We didn't kill him. He left us a note.” The radio was silent and in the rear view mirror I could see Frank's hand moving, presumably signing to James. “Read it” his voice came back, even on the radio there was that tone of command.
“Yes, sir. The note reads as follows.” She swallowed and cleared her throat.
“Justice is coming, and I bring it to you who killed my comrades in arms and the brotherhood of our race. A traitor must pay for their crimes. The old man, woman and boy, I spare as long as they don't help you. For now you live, until I decide the time of your death. Sleep lightly for the gun isn't my only weapon. I'll be closer than you think.”
That's all it reads sir.” she finished and put the mike back down on her lap on top of the note.
The air was quiet for a long moment, finally Frank's voice sounded grave. “Take the next off ramp, we'll convene there.” I nodded and Maggie replied “Affirmative, taking next off ramp.”
Ten minutes later we found an off ramp and then went past it to the feeder instead, reasoning that the bridge and berms would provide reasonable obstruction of both vision and bullets. That is if the sniper was close behind us. We didn't want to dally that's for sure. We all got out and pointedly gathered around the cab of our truck instead of the covered bed of Frank's. His truck held far more ordinance than ours and a stray bullet would be more than catastrophic.
Maggie stiffly handed the note to Frank and stood at attention. Frank began reading the note and muttered, “at ease Sargent.” Maggie relaxed almost going to the splayed leg and arms behind her back before catching herself and standing easy with her arm around my waist. James stood looking around our area. For a kid of 12 years old he wasn't acting like one. Most would've been trying to read the note instead of checking for danger. Not this kid, he guessed rightly that he would get to read it in due time. When Frank finished he quietly handed the note to his grandson. The boy read it and crumpled it back up in his fist. “Asthole” he said to no-one in particular.
Frank seemed to be in a split between correcting his grandson and wanting to discuss the business of the note. He opted out for the note. “Some reason or another he's holding you solely responsible for everything that's happened.” he said, I understood that he was just simply stating the facts. His hands weren't moving to his words and in a moment Maggie released my waist and interpreted for her son. “We're not going to be harmed unless we prevent him from killing you.” He shook his head. “Well,” he said to me, and took a deep breath, “he's bitten off more than he could chew, thinking that we're going to just stand by and let him take you out.” He looked around where we were, then glanced at his watch before addressing me. “John, if you don't mind, we'll eat on the road and keep going until we need fuel and then find a place for the night.”
I just nodded, not really taking everything in. In truth it was becoming overwhelming that this hard-nosed military man was willing to put his family in jeopardy for a stranger they just met only a few days ago. Part of me wanted to grab my pack and my sword and just disappear into the woods to get away as far as possible, letting the sniper think I went on ahead in the trucks, but I discovered that I couldn't leave Maggie. That to me was the most overwhelming part of it, that I had become attached to this woman so firmly in such a short time.
Frank nodded, “alright then, lets get back on the road and get moving.” He turned and headed back to his truck, motioning for James to follow. Maggie hugged me for a moment then broke away to lift a corner off the tarp covering the bed and reached inside. She pulled out a small collapsible cooler and held it up. “Hope you like two day old peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches.”
I had to grin, “love 'em. Where are the drinks?” She shook the bag lightly. “On the bottom”
“Alright lets get moving.” I said and went back over to the driver's side and got in. I paused for a moment giving Frank a nod of appreciation as he started up his truck. He gave a quick wave of “go on ahead”. I got in the truck and started the engine.
Two hours later we had to stop to refuel. It was slow going, pouring from the 8 five gallon jerry cans that lined the back of our truck into both vehicles' gas tanks. I tried fighting off the feeling that we were being watched, that I was being sighted through the cross-hairs of a high-powered scope mounted to an equally high-powered rifle. By the time the last can was emptied and placed back in the bed of the truck, a couple of zombies shambled out of the woods by the highway towards the vehicles. We ignored them and got back in the trucks and drove off leaving them behind in short order.
We drove as far as we could along the highways outside of the main routes going in and out of St Louis as soon as we got within 50 miles of the city limits. There would be, as in almost every major city, a traffic jam from hell that would never clear up and the risk of zombies would be greater along the interstate than highways. The ones we met back at the school bus the other day was probably a freak occurrence that a herd somehow wandered off their usual path and ended up where we were at that moment. Who knows? Like I said, nobody has really taken the time or inclination to study the habits of zombies. At least nobody that we knew anyway.
Maggie and I rode along in mostly in silence, her sitting close to me, hand on my leg, head on my shoulders, occasionally talking about her past life and about being a single military mom trying to raise a deaf son in between tours of duty. That she was a specialist meant she was out in the field more often and longer than most soldiers. She regretted missing a good portion of her son's early years. She hoped to make up for them in the near future.
However; when she was forced to early retirement it allowed her to catch up, but she feared that it was still not enough. I reminded her that he was 12 and had a ways to go, so did she. She snuggled closer to me. I managed to wrap my arm around her shoulder and hold her there. A warrior, trained for combat, but still a woman.
We were quiet for a while then she asked about how I was feeling. I assessed myself and was relieved that I wasn't feeling as badly, that I honestly felt better. This was a good sign because I've known too many people who have been bitten and they never “got better” before they got worse. The bites just simply wore them down to nothing and they died.
“Hey, you birds awake up there?” Frank's voice called from the radio (turned down low). Maggie sighed and reached for the microphone. “Yeah, Dad, what's up?” Frank's voice came back, “James been looking at the maps and says that there may be a hotel we can shack up in for the night. Might even be able to take a shower, Lord knows we all need it. Only question is, will it be hot or cold?” Maggie grinned, “how far?” and as she asked I eyed the fuel level, we were getting close to less than a quarter tank, basically meaning we covered quite a bit of ground without incident and putting us farther away from the sniper as possible. We hoped.
“James said about another 20 miles by his calculations, I concur.” I looked at my watch, “still early,” I muttered. Maggie lifted her head off my shoulder an nodded, “Yeah, but we need the rest and plan ahead. I think we're getting close to the Wildfire installation and Dad wants us to arrive in the morning. We'll also be close enough to be within radio range as well.”
Maggie stiffly handed the note to Frank and stood at attention. Frank began reading the note and muttered, “at ease Sargent.” Maggie relaxed almost going to the splayed leg and arms behind her back before catching herself and standing easy with her arm around my waist. James stood looking around our area. For a kid of 12 years old he wasn't acting like one. Most would've been trying to read the note instead of checking for danger. Not this kid, he guessed rightly that he would get to read it in due time. When Frank finished he quietly handed the note to his grandson. The boy read it and crumpled it back up in his fist. “Asthole” he said to no-one in particular.
Frank seemed to be in a split between correcting his grandson and wanting to discuss the business of the note. He opted out for the note. “Some reason or another he's holding you solely responsible for everything that's happened.” he said, I understood that he was just simply stating the facts. His hands weren't moving to his words and in a moment Maggie released my waist and interpreted for her son. “We're not going to be harmed unless we prevent him from killing you.” He shook his head. “Well,” he said to me, and took a deep breath, “he's bitten off more than he could chew, thinking that we're going to just stand by and let him take you out.” He looked around where we were, then glanced at his watch before addressing me. “John, if you don't mind, we'll eat on the road and keep going until we need fuel and then find a place for the night.”
I just nodded, not really taking everything in. In truth it was becoming overwhelming that this hard-nosed military man was willing to put his family in jeopardy for a stranger they just met only a few days ago. Part of me wanted to grab my pack and my sword and just disappear into the woods to get away as far as possible, letting the sniper think I went on ahead in the trucks, but I discovered that I couldn't leave Maggie. That to me was the most overwhelming part of it, that I had become attached to this woman so firmly in such a short time.
Frank nodded, “alright then, lets get back on the road and get moving.” He turned and headed back to his truck, motioning for James to follow. Maggie hugged me for a moment then broke away to lift a corner off the tarp covering the bed and reached inside. She pulled out a small collapsible cooler and held it up. “Hope you like two day old peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches.”
I had to grin, “love 'em. Where are the drinks?” She shook the bag lightly. “On the bottom”
“Alright lets get moving.” I said and went back over to the driver's side and got in. I paused for a moment giving Frank a nod of appreciation as he started up his truck. He gave a quick wave of “go on ahead”. I got in the truck and started the engine.
Two hours later we had to stop to refuel. It was slow going, pouring from the 8 five gallon jerry cans that lined the back of our truck into both vehicles' gas tanks. I tried fighting off the feeling that we were being watched, that I was being sighted through the cross-hairs of a high-powered scope mounted to an equally high-powered rifle. By the time the last can was emptied and placed back in the bed of the truck, a couple of zombies shambled out of the woods by the highway towards the vehicles. We ignored them and got back in the trucks and drove off leaving them behind in short order.
We drove as far as we could along the highways outside of the main routes going in and out of St Louis as soon as we got within 50 miles of the city limits. There would be, as in almost every major city, a traffic jam from hell that would never clear up and the risk of zombies would be greater along the interstate than highways. The ones we met back at the school bus the other day was probably a freak occurrence that a herd somehow wandered off their usual path and ended up where we were at that moment. Who knows? Like I said, nobody has really taken the time or inclination to study the habits of zombies. At least nobody that we knew anyway.
Maggie and I rode along in mostly in silence, her sitting close to me, hand on my leg, head on my shoulders, occasionally talking about her past life and about being a single military mom trying to raise a deaf son in between tours of duty. That she was a specialist meant she was out in the field more often and longer than most soldiers. She regretted missing a good portion of her son's early years. She hoped to make up for them in the near future.
However; when she was forced to early retirement it allowed her to catch up, but she feared that it was still not enough. I reminded her that he was 12 and had a ways to go, so did she. She snuggled closer to me. I managed to wrap my arm around her shoulder and hold her there. A warrior, trained for combat, but still a woman.
We were quiet for a while then she asked about how I was feeling. I assessed myself and was relieved that I wasn't feeling as badly, that I honestly felt better. This was a good sign because I've known too many people who have been bitten and they never “got better” before they got worse. The bites just simply wore them down to nothing and they died.
“Hey, you birds awake up there?” Frank's voice called from the radio (turned down low). Maggie sighed and reached for the microphone. “Yeah, Dad, what's up?” Frank's voice came back, “James been looking at the maps and says that there may be a hotel we can shack up in for the night. Might even be able to take a shower, Lord knows we all need it. Only question is, will it be hot or cold?” Maggie grinned, “how far?” and as she asked I eyed the fuel level, we were getting close to less than a quarter tank, basically meaning we covered quite a bit of ground without incident and putting us farther away from the sniper as possible. We hoped.
“James said about another 20 miles by his calculations, I concur.” I looked at my watch, “still early,” I muttered. Maggie lifted her head off my shoulder an nodded, “Yeah, but we need the rest and plan ahead. I think we're getting close to the Wildfire installation and Dad wants us to arrive in the morning. We'll also be close enough to be within radio range as well.”
“Our radios have the frequency?” I asked.
She shook her head, “the truck radios, no, they're just ordinary civilian bands, but Dad has a portable unit in his truck, but it's range is limited to a 3 mile radius, that model anyway.” So, we'd have to get close to the perimeter of the installation to be heard. But the attack helicopters can pick us up from farther out.”
My jaw dropped, “at-attack helicopters? You mean like Apache's?” She grinned at me. “Uh, not likely.” I sighed for a moment until she jumped in teasingly but totally serious, “More like Comanches ( http://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/detail.asp?aircraft_id=49 ) and Cobra gunships. (http://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/detail.asp?aircraft_id=13)” she paused, “nothing major.”
I shot her a dirty look and she giggled.
“Sounds good Dad,” she spoke into the radio, “we'll see if we can't find something where the power might still be on.” She hung up the mike and leaned back against me. “Dad has all the clearance codes and the gunships will more-n-likely just escort us in.” Somehow I wasn't reassured.
True to James' word, the highway signs told of several hotels up ahead. We found one that looked basically deserted but after cruising around the parking lot for a moment, several walkers came out at the noise of our tires on the pavement and we had to move on. Ten more minutes down the road we saw another motel sign and tried that. We pulled in and waited. Frank asked quietly on the radio we wanted to recon the area. To me it was still early enough in the day and I wanted to move on but I gave in to the majority. Also I was reminded by Maggie that her father wasn't as young as we were and needed to rest after a long drive. I agreed, and told Frank to honk his horn once quickly if he spotted anything.
Maggie and I got out of the truck, my sword in hand, Maggie carrying her pistol in the open and knife in it's sheath, and walked quietly to the office. I wanted to check in there (pardon the pun) for keys to the rooms, and to get a general layout of the place. Personally I'd been more comfortably secure in a semi but that was just me, but a possible shower sounded good... if everything was still working. Nothing was in the office but I did find the master key thanks to the wording written boldly on the front of the card. The hotel also was one of those where the room entrances were inside the building itself and not outside with big huge windows. It would take a while to check each room, the building map showed 24 units divided on two floors, card keyed entry to the building and the rooms... if the power was still on.
I tried a switch and was happy to see that the power was indeed still on. Maggie cleared her throat and pointed to a sign by the front desk which boasted of solar panels designed to save us money. Pretty lucky I thought. “Think the hot water works?” I asked. She shrugged, “it'd be nice wouldn't it?” then blushed. “Lets finish checking the rooms before we get all excited.” I said grimly, moving to the hallway door, holding my sword out behind me pointed at the floor.
To check the rooms it was simple, on each one just bang hard twice on the door, wait and listen. If no sounds from within, then open the door with Maggie covered the entrance with her gun. If nothing came out, she goes in and clears the room, checking everywhere, even under the beds. I had her open the bathroom cabinets as well. It's a cramp place to hide and a cramp place to hide and die and turn and become a lurker or sleeper as I called them. In one of the rooms I thought to check the water temperature by turning on the bathroom sink, it ran rusty for a few moments, then cleared. A minute later after that Maggie and I smiled at each other as steam rose from the sink. We kissed a long kiss full of promises after that. About 20 minutes later checking all the rooms and anywhere else a zombie might be found, we moved out to the back of the building and saw to our satisfaction that there was a high concrete cinder block wall that went mostly around the rear parking area.
Beyond the wall was a thick stand of trees leading to a wooded area. We would park the vehicles out of sight from the road in this lot. Maggie and I went out front, she headed to our truck and tossed back a corner of the tarp after releasing the catches that held it down.
I walked up to where Frank and James sat waiting. James lowered his window so Frank and I could speak. I looked at him and gave him a thumbs up and a smile, hoping that he understood all was okay with the hotel. Frank clapped his hand on James' shoulder and signed to him to get out of the truck. We unloaded our stuff for the night and Frank and I drove the trucks around to the back of the building. He was happy to hear that the showers were working. We locked the vehicles up and grabbed a few of the folded tarps we had brought along with us for outdoor shelters to carry in. The tarps would be hung over the windows from the inside masking any light from the windows. There were a few cars in the parking lot. I hoped that a few of them still had gas that we could siphon later on after we got settled in.
We chose two rooms nearest to the rear most exit stairwell and Maggie wanted to set up a claymore at the bottom of those steps, and for the ones leading up from the front of the building. I told her to wait until we got the gas from the other cars and weren't going to go back out for the rest of the night. We still moved cautiously in spite our excitement at the idea of having hot showers for the evening.
Forty five minutes later we had the trucks refilled and half of the number of jerry cans filled as well. I also noted one thing that was a very good sign. If I had been infected by that knife I'd been either dead or dying by now. But I felt fine and got another big kiss from Maggie when she asked me about how I was feeling. She went to work on setting up a booby trap for the stairwell out front and the one we would use for an escape. She placed the claymore mines in such a way that one would have to be actually looking for it.
Dinner and light conversation was in the room Maggie and I chose to sleep in. James finished his meal and got up to go to his room since he was told we weren't going to be talking about any plans. He managed to bring his X-Box 360 along with a small box of games, just in case. He went to the room that he would share with his grandfather set up the tv and within minutes became happy as a teenager could be under the circumstances. Poor kid must've been jonesing to play for a while. At one point during the “big person chat” Frank asked me if he could talk to Maggie alone. He handed me his key asking me to check on James. I checked on him and sat down next to him on the edge of the bed and ended up grabbing the other controller played GTA-7 with him. By the time Frank showed up to take a shower, the two of us were elbowing each other to mess up our shots as we tried to kill each other first. I was starting to have fun and I was glad to see he was too. We gotten to the point to where we were flipping each other off and giggling each time we offed each other in the game. It was something new for me. To start feeling a bond build between us, in spite of earlier misgivings. It felt nice and every once in a while I asked him to show me a sign for this or for that in relation to the game, words like “play again”, “cheater”, “asshole” and whatever else. Not true communication that I could see but he looked like he was enjoying it and being able to at least communicate on a very rudimentary level. Yeah, I could see this kid growing on me. He seemed awfully bright and intuitive and was very good at the game. Not the video game, which he excelled in anyway, but in life. All the training that was given to him at an early age, then it's real-life applications in the midst of this apocalypse. In spite of his disability I could see him surviving for a long time to come.
Frank watched us for a long moment as we played on, ignoring him but knowing full well he was watching, then he shook his head and went into the bathroom to shower. Half hour later he came out, clean and looking lighter in spirit than since I've met him. The wonders a shower could do to a person. He said that Maggie was waiting for me. All at once, I felt uncomfortable knowing that her son and father knew I was going to see her and share a room/bed. I shook it off and signed “thank you” and pointed at the tv to James as I put the controller down on top of the tv, and shook Frank's hand on the way out, saying goodnight.
I ran into Maggie in the hallway as she was going to say goodnight to James. We passed one another and I managed to give her butt a playful pat. She giggled and continued on into the other room. As I entered that same feeling came over me, though we've already shared a bed, the idea that her son and father were in the next room brought up all kinds of inhibited feelings within me. I had to shake this feeling off. James and Frank seem to accept our being together without any reservations so it was ok. Wasn't it? Seems I had a lot to learn still, in spite of my age.
Five minutes later Maggie came back into the room and locked the door completely, chain and all. Then without a word she stripped out of her clothes and stepped into the bathroom. When I followed her she was already turning on the water in the shower/tub. I stripped off my clothes and joined her. Our shower lovemaking was silent, not needing or wanting to say anything to one another. We came close to death several times in the past few days, and not knowing what tomorrow would bring caused us to release our tensions and passions through rigorous love making, as the steaming hot water washed our sore muscles. When we were finished, we toweled off and laid naked together on top of the bed after pulling off the dusty coverlet carefully so not to create a cloud that we'd have to breathe. She snuggled against me and we made small talk for a while before falling silent. We were tired but not quite ready to sleep. “John, one of the things that I need to tell you... I want to but ...” she trailed off. I counted to 10 before asking “what?” I could almost hear the wheels of thought going through her mind.
She held up her arm and even in that dim light I could see the scar. “When that IED went off, it not only did this, but caused other damage as well. There were some, internal injuries from the shock of the blast. Like I said I was very lucky to be wearing the suit but even then it can't protect you from everything, especially if you're a woman. It's probably why women in my field of expertise are rare because of the potential for damage.” She fell silent. I had to repress an impatient sigh. I just wanted to make love again and go to sleep, but instead asked quietly, “what kind of damage are you talking about?” She tried to snuggle closer to me if it were possible. The warmth of her leg overlapping mine and the firmness of her breast against my side was beginning to make it difficult to concentrate on what she was saying.
“The concussion from the blast wrecked my baby making parts. The ones inside. James is going to be the only child I will ever have.” I nodded quietly and squeezed her tight, “That's okay,” I kissed her head gently. “I don't think having a baby right now in this world is such a good idea anyway. Later on maybe, but not right now.” She sobbed a little, “But I can never have one again, ever.” She caught her breath, “Brian and I talked about having two or three when we first got married and I loved the idea and loved being pregnant. James was a good delivery and I felt that I could handle a couple more, but now...” she tapered off to silent tears, wetting my chest. I laid there quiet, letting her cry herself out, it was brief and soon her fingers were tracing nonsensical designs on my chest.
“Hey,” I asked all of the sudden. She looked up at me, her eyes touching mine. “The blast didn't wreck all your baby making parts you know.” I grinned at her and ran my hand down her arm softly. She gave my stomach a soft playful slap and her palm flat on my skin, moved further south. “No, it didn't. How lucky for you huh?” We made love several more times that night in bed, before falling asleep.
Next morning we ate a freeze dried breakfast in Frank's room and afterwards gathered up our things. Maggie went on ahead to disarm the claymore mines, at either end of the building as James stood a top of the stairs with his rifle keeping watch. It would be bad form for us to callously leave an otherwise innocuous building rigged. We knew that we weren't the only survivors moving around. The morning was hazy with dew fog as it burned off the ground. The seasons were beginning to change from summer to fall.
I stood at the top of the stairs with my pack and sword on my back as Maggie finished up disconnecting her booby traps. She looked around for a moment then asked, “Is dad still in his room?” I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned to see Frank standing with a grin at me holding up a home-made sign out of a discarded pizza box-top he found somewhere. He wrote on it, using large and small lettering.
then the date. “Going to put this on the front most part of the building. Wish it was metal and I had paint but it'll have to do for the other travelers along the way.” I nodded but had to add, “yeah and it'll give Hunters some peace of mind too.” At that he frowned “Yeah, unfortunately, but I'd feel better and like to think that some honest folks would appreciate what we had last night.” He walked off towards the front of the building to put up his sign.
Maggie touched my arm. I looked at her and saw she was a bit misty eyed. “Your dad is a good man hunny.” was all that I could think to say. She nodded with a smile and gave me a peck on the cheek. “So are you.” She went back inside the building to grab the last of our things. She returned with a bag over her shoulder and I could see behind her Frank coming down the hallway towards us.
In a few minutes, James lightly trotted down the steps past us and went over to his truck, only to find it still locked. He turned and spied his grandfather at the top of the stairs and yelled up to him to “Urry Ap.” With a wave, Frank smiled and began walking down the stairs, “Hold on to your horses boy, I'm coming.” he called out without signing. Maggie and I went on down and put our things in the bed of the truck and tied the cover tarps back down, checking to make sure it was all secure. I dug into my pocket for the keys and put the key into the door lock about to turn it, when Maggie's voice spoke quietly, urgently to me. I froze and looked through the windows at her. She pointed to something inside the truck. Carefully I peered inside.
Draped over the lower part of the steering wheel was a folded sheet of paper that wasn't there before. I drew my gun and turned around slowly, trying to look everywhere at once. My heart pounding. I didn't forget about the sniper but didn't think he would have caught up to us so soon. He must've drove all night, risking zombies and wrecked cars to get here. What got me the most was that he found us after all the various exits and turn-offs we passed. How could he have known? Then, I realized the obvious. He too must have had a Ham radio with a scanner that locked on our frequency as soon as we talked on it. Likewise driving around looking for our vehicles until he found them. Dammit, angrily I was about to slam the hood of the truck with my hand in frustration. “John DON'T!” yelled Maggie. My hand froze in place a couple of inches above the metal of the hood.
Frank came around to Maggie's side and she pointed through the glass. “John, step away from the truck” Frank voice was deadly serious and I obeyed. James stood in readiness but lost as to what was going on. Instead the boy turned around and started scanning the trees. I moved back away from the truck until my heel struck one of the parking barriers. Maggie walked around the truck slowly then bent down to peer underneath, I did the same.
Hanging freely from what looked like a wire was a simple grenade, it looked like it was made to fall as soon as I opened up the door, the wire, wound tightly around the striker of the grenade would then become loose allowing it to be armed. Maggie's body blocked the view as she moved to disarm it, but she worked quietly, whispering to her father as he reached for the door handle on the drivers side. “Ok, open the door, slowly” I heard her say. Admirably she didn't have a tremor and seemed as cool and calm as if she was pouring a cup of tea for some friends. “Got it?” asked Frank who seemed more nervous than I was, if that were possible.
Small wonder, he was closer to the grenade than I was, not that it made any difference since I was only 5 feet away from Maggie. I looked over at James, who was still being ever watchful around us. He raised his rifle to his shoulder and looked through the scope at something back behind me. Calmly he lowered the rifle and caught my attention and used his finger to discreetly call me over to him. I stood up and kept my back to the wall of the building and worked my way over to him.
Frank got the door opened and a moment later Maggie stood up holding something tightly in her hand, examining it. “Not a bad job at that” I heard her say to her father. I finally made it over to James who looked at me in the eyes and then glanced at something behind me. His mouth moved silently and I caught “...per” as his lips formed the last syllable. I nodded fractionally indicating that I understood. I turned my head enough to see Maggie walking towards the cinder-block wall, her hand out behind her holding the grenade. She tossed it over and then ducked. Seconds later there was a loud bang and a cloud of debris came flying past the top of the wall. Maggie ran back towards the truck. “Get outta here!!” she yelled. Frank moved pretty quick for a man of his age and made it back around to his side of his truck before Maggie reached the driver side of ours. I ran low as I could and got to the passenger side and in the truck, ducking low in the seat and held on.
I reached out and grabbed the new note from the steering wheel and likewise slumped down in my seat. Just in time too as a bullet slammed into the window behind us near where she sat and a hole appeared in the instrument panel. “Dammit!” she cursed and put the truck in reverse backing us out quickly. I heard and felt another bullet hit the tail gate of the truck. I envisioned one of the gas tanks springing a leak and spilling it's contents all inside the bed of the truck, but remembered that only half of the cans were filled. Maybe we got lucky. I peeked over the dash and out over the hood. Frank and James had already turned the corner of the building. Maggie stomped on the gas and managed to take the same corner without flipping us over.
Out in the front parking lot there lumbered along a few walkers who had been attracted by the explosion of the grenade and gunshots. One of them moved into Frank's path and was mowed down as he barreled out on to the road. Our front tire also hit it, causing us to jump a little. I stayed down until I felt that we were far enough out of range to sit up normally. “Are you alright?” I yelled over the roar of the engine. “Yeah, I'm fine, bastard shot at me dammit!” The look on her face was fury as she sat upright in the seat as well. “It wasn't enough to just plant a bomb hoping to get you but shooting at me, at us, just raised the stakes.” I was likewise angry but at the same time giddy with the thought that we escaped when I could've been taken out more than a dozen times, especially seeing that we found his bomb and it wasn't going to work. Just then, Frank's voice called out on the radio.
“You son-of-a-bitch I know you can hear me! You are officially on my shit list, soldier! Do you hear me?!” For some reason it struck me funnier than hell and I was about to laugh aloud when a reply came that chilled all our blood. A low laughter crackled on the speaker, then went dead. Maggie and I exchanged a look. Great, the guy was either completely nuts or supremely confident. Maggie kept driving, being nearly bumper to bumper with Frank as he lead the way. In two minutes we were on the interstate again, running for our lives.
She shook her head, “the truck radios, no, they're just ordinary civilian bands, but Dad has a portable unit in his truck, but it's range is limited to a 3 mile radius, that model anyway.” So, we'd have to get close to the perimeter of the installation to be heard. But the attack helicopters can pick us up from farther out.”
My jaw dropped, “at-attack helicopters? You mean like Apache's?” She grinned at me. “Uh, not likely.” I sighed for a moment until she jumped in teasingly but totally serious, “More like Comanches ( http://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/detail.asp?aircraft_id=49 ) and Cobra gunships. (http://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/detail.asp?aircraft_id=13)” she paused, “nothing major.”
I shot her a dirty look and she giggled.
“Sounds good Dad,” she spoke into the radio, “we'll see if we can't find something where the power might still be on.” She hung up the mike and leaned back against me. “Dad has all the clearance codes and the gunships will more-n-likely just escort us in.” Somehow I wasn't reassured.
True to James' word, the highway signs told of several hotels up ahead. We found one that looked basically deserted but after cruising around the parking lot for a moment, several walkers came out at the noise of our tires on the pavement and we had to move on. Ten more minutes down the road we saw another motel sign and tried that. We pulled in and waited. Frank asked quietly on the radio we wanted to recon the area. To me it was still early enough in the day and I wanted to move on but I gave in to the majority. Also I was reminded by Maggie that her father wasn't as young as we were and needed to rest after a long drive. I agreed, and told Frank to honk his horn once quickly if he spotted anything.
Maggie and I got out of the truck, my sword in hand, Maggie carrying her pistol in the open and knife in it's sheath, and walked quietly to the office. I wanted to check in there (pardon the pun) for keys to the rooms, and to get a general layout of the place. Personally I'd been more comfortably secure in a semi but that was just me, but a possible shower sounded good... if everything was still working. Nothing was in the office but I did find the master key thanks to the wording written boldly on the front of the card. The hotel also was one of those where the room entrances were inside the building itself and not outside with big huge windows. It would take a while to check each room, the building map showed 24 units divided on two floors, card keyed entry to the building and the rooms... if the power was still on.
I tried a switch and was happy to see that the power was indeed still on. Maggie cleared her throat and pointed to a sign by the front desk which boasted of solar panels designed to save us money. Pretty lucky I thought. “Think the hot water works?” I asked. She shrugged, “it'd be nice wouldn't it?” then blushed. “Lets finish checking the rooms before we get all excited.” I said grimly, moving to the hallway door, holding my sword out behind me pointed at the floor.
To check the rooms it was simple, on each one just bang hard twice on the door, wait and listen. If no sounds from within, then open the door with Maggie covered the entrance with her gun. If nothing came out, she goes in and clears the room, checking everywhere, even under the beds. I had her open the bathroom cabinets as well. It's a cramp place to hide and a cramp place to hide and die and turn and become a lurker or sleeper as I called them. In one of the rooms I thought to check the water temperature by turning on the bathroom sink, it ran rusty for a few moments, then cleared. A minute later after that Maggie and I smiled at each other as steam rose from the sink. We kissed a long kiss full of promises after that. About 20 minutes later checking all the rooms and anywhere else a zombie might be found, we moved out to the back of the building and saw to our satisfaction that there was a high concrete cinder block wall that went mostly around the rear parking area.
Beyond the wall was a thick stand of trees leading to a wooded area. We would park the vehicles out of sight from the road in this lot. Maggie and I went out front, she headed to our truck and tossed back a corner of the tarp after releasing the catches that held it down.
I walked up to where Frank and James sat waiting. James lowered his window so Frank and I could speak. I looked at him and gave him a thumbs up and a smile, hoping that he understood all was okay with the hotel. Frank clapped his hand on James' shoulder and signed to him to get out of the truck. We unloaded our stuff for the night and Frank and I drove the trucks around to the back of the building. He was happy to hear that the showers were working. We locked the vehicles up and grabbed a few of the folded tarps we had brought along with us for outdoor shelters to carry in. The tarps would be hung over the windows from the inside masking any light from the windows. There were a few cars in the parking lot. I hoped that a few of them still had gas that we could siphon later on after we got settled in.
We chose two rooms nearest to the rear most exit stairwell and Maggie wanted to set up a claymore at the bottom of those steps, and for the ones leading up from the front of the building. I told her to wait until we got the gas from the other cars and weren't going to go back out for the rest of the night. We still moved cautiously in spite our excitement at the idea of having hot showers for the evening.
Forty five minutes later we had the trucks refilled and half of the number of jerry cans filled as well. I also noted one thing that was a very good sign. If I had been infected by that knife I'd been either dead or dying by now. But I felt fine and got another big kiss from Maggie when she asked me about how I was feeling. She went to work on setting up a booby trap for the stairwell out front and the one we would use for an escape. She placed the claymore mines in such a way that one would have to be actually looking for it.
Dinner and light conversation was in the room Maggie and I chose to sleep in. James finished his meal and got up to go to his room since he was told we weren't going to be talking about any plans. He managed to bring his X-Box 360 along with a small box of games, just in case. He went to the room that he would share with his grandfather set up the tv and within minutes became happy as a teenager could be under the circumstances. Poor kid must've been jonesing to play for a while. At one point during the “big person chat” Frank asked me if he could talk to Maggie alone. He handed me his key asking me to check on James. I checked on him and sat down next to him on the edge of the bed and ended up grabbing the other controller played GTA-7 with him. By the time Frank showed up to take a shower, the two of us were elbowing each other to mess up our shots as we tried to kill each other first. I was starting to have fun and I was glad to see he was too. We gotten to the point to where we were flipping each other off and giggling each time we offed each other in the game. It was something new for me. To start feeling a bond build between us, in spite of earlier misgivings. It felt nice and every once in a while I asked him to show me a sign for this or for that in relation to the game, words like “play again”, “cheater”, “asshole” and whatever else. Not true communication that I could see but he looked like he was enjoying it and being able to at least communicate on a very rudimentary level. Yeah, I could see this kid growing on me. He seemed awfully bright and intuitive and was very good at the game. Not the video game, which he excelled in anyway, but in life. All the training that was given to him at an early age, then it's real-life applications in the midst of this apocalypse. In spite of his disability I could see him surviving for a long time to come.
Frank watched us for a long moment as we played on, ignoring him but knowing full well he was watching, then he shook his head and went into the bathroom to shower. Half hour later he came out, clean and looking lighter in spirit than since I've met him. The wonders a shower could do to a person. He said that Maggie was waiting for me. All at once, I felt uncomfortable knowing that her son and father knew I was going to see her and share a room/bed. I shook it off and signed “thank you” and pointed at the tv to James as I put the controller down on top of the tv, and shook Frank's hand on the way out, saying goodnight.
I ran into Maggie in the hallway as she was going to say goodnight to James. We passed one another and I managed to give her butt a playful pat. She giggled and continued on into the other room. As I entered that same feeling came over me, though we've already shared a bed, the idea that her son and father were in the next room brought up all kinds of inhibited feelings within me. I had to shake this feeling off. James and Frank seem to accept our being together without any reservations so it was ok. Wasn't it? Seems I had a lot to learn still, in spite of my age.
Five minutes later Maggie came back into the room and locked the door completely, chain and all. Then without a word she stripped out of her clothes and stepped into the bathroom. When I followed her she was already turning on the water in the shower/tub. I stripped off my clothes and joined her. Our shower lovemaking was silent, not needing or wanting to say anything to one another. We came close to death several times in the past few days, and not knowing what tomorrow would bring caused us to release our tensions and passions through rigorous love making, as the steaming hot water washed our sore muscles. When we were finished, we toweled off and laid naked together on top of the bed after pulling off the dusty coverlet carefully so not to create a cloud that we'd have to breathe. She snuggled against me and we made small talk for a while before falling silent. We were tired but not quite ready to sleep. “John, one of the things that I need to tell you... I want to but ...” she trailed off. I counted to 10 before asking “what?” I could almost hear the wheels of thought going through her mind.
She held up her arm and even in that dim light I could see the scar. “When that IED went off, it not only did this, but caused other damage as well. There were some, internal injuries from the shock of the blast. Like I said I was very lucky to be wearing the suit but even then it can't protect you from everything, especially if you're a woman. It's probably why women in my field of expertise are rare because of the potential for damage.” She fell silent. I had to repress an impatient sigh. I just wanted to make love again and go to sleep, but instead asked quietly, “what kind of damage are you talking about?” She tried to snuggle closer to me if it were possible. The warmth of her leg overlapping mine and the firmness of her breast against my side was beginning to make it difficult to concentrate on what she was saying.
“The concussion from the blast wrecked my baby making parts. The ones inside. James is going to be the only child I will ever have.” I nodded quietly and squeezed her tight, “That's okay,” I kissed her head gently. “I don't think having a baby right now in this world is such a good idea anyway. Later on maybe, but not right now.” She sobbed a little, “But I can never have one again, ever.” She caught her breath, “Brian and I talked about having two or three when we first got married and I loved the idea and loved being pregnant. James was a good delivery and I felt that I could handle a couple more, but now...” she tapered off to silent tears, wetting my chest. I laid there quiet, letting her cry herself out, it was brief and soon her fingers were tracing nonsensical designs on my chest.
“Hey,” I asked all of the sudden. She looked up at me, her eyes touching mine. “The blast didn't wreck all your baby making parts you know.” I grinned at her and ran my hand down her arm softly. She gave my stomach a soft playful slap and her palm flat on my skin, moved further south. “No, it didn't. How lucky for you huh?” We made love several more times that night in bed, before falling asleep.
Next morning we ate a freeze dried breakfast in Frank's room and afterwards gathered up our things. Maggie went on ahead to disarm the claymore mines, at either end of the building as James stood a top of the stairs with his rifle keeping watch. It would be bad form for us to callously leave an otherwise innocuous building rigged. We knew that we weren't the only survivors moving around. The morning was hazy with dew fog as it burned off the ground. The seasons were beginning to change from summer to fall.
I stood at the top of the stairs with my pack and sword on my back as Maggie finished up disconnecting her booby traps. She looked around for a moment then asked, “Is dad still in his room?” I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned to see Frank standing with a grin at me holding up a home-made sign out of a discarded pizza box-top he found somewhere. He wrote on it, using large and small lettering.
“This Hotel is Zombie Safe.
Hot Water and Electricity Available.
Recommend blacking out windows at night.”
then the date. “Going to put this on the front most part of the building. Wish it was metal and I had paint but it'll have to do for the other travelers along the way.” I nodded but had to add, “yeah and it'll give Hunters some peace of mind too.” At that he frowned “Yeah, unfortunately, but I'd feel better and like to think that some honest folks would appreciate what we had last night.” He walked off towards the front of the building to put up his sign.
Maggie touched my arm. I looked at her and saw she was a bit misty eyed. “Your dad is a good man hunny.” was all that I could think to say. She nodded with a smile and gave me a peck on the cheek. “So are you.” She went back inside the building to grab the last of our things. She returned with a bag over her shoulder and I could see behind her Frank coming down the hallway towards us.
In a few minutes, James lightly trotted down the steps past us and went over to his truck, only to find it still locked. He turned and spied his grandfather at the top of the stairs and yelled up to him to “Urry Ap.” With a wave, Frank smiled and began walking down the stairs, “Hold on to your horses boy, I'm coming.” he called out without signing. Maggie and I went on down and put our things in the bed of the truck and tied the cover tarps back down, checking to make sure it was all secure. I dug into my pocket for the keys and put the key into the door lock about to turn it, when Maggie's voice spoke quietly, urgently to me. I froze and looked through the windows at her. She pointed to something inside the truck. Carefully I peered inside.
Draped over the lower part of the steering wheel was a folded sheet of paper that wasn't there before. I drew my gun and turned around slowly, trying to look everywhere at once. My heart pounding. I didn't forget about the sniper but didn't think he would have caught up to us so soon. He must've drove all night, risking zombies and wrecked cars to get here. What got me the most was that he found us after all the various exits and turn-offs we passed. How could he have known? Then, I realized the obvious. He too must have had a Ham radio with a scanner that locked on our frequency as soon as we talked on it. Likewise driving around looking for our vehicles until he found them. Dammit, angrily I was about to slam the hood of the truck with my hand in frustration. “John DON'T!” yelled Maggie. My hand froze in place a couple of inches above the metal of the hood.
Frank came around to Maggie's side and she pointed through the glass. “John, step away from the truck” Frank voice was deadly serious and I obeyed. James stood in readiness but lost as to what was going on. Instead the boy turned around and started scanning the trees. I moved back away from the truck until my heel struck one of the parking barriers. Maggie walked around the truck slowly then bent down to peer underneath, I did the same.
Hanging freely from what looked like a wire was a simple grenade, it looked like it was made to fall as soon as I opened up the door, the wire, wound tightly around the striker of the grenade would then become loose allowing it to be armed. Maggie's body blocked the view as she moved to disarm it, but she worked quietly, whispering to her father as he reached for the door handle on the drivers side. “Ok, open the door, slowly” I heard her say. Admirably she didn't have a tremor and seemed as cool and calm as if she was pouring a cup of tea for some friends. “Got it?” asked Frank who seemed more nervous than I was, if that were possible.
Small wonder, he was closer to the grenade than I was, not that it made any difference since I was only 5 feet away from Maggie. I looked over at James, who was still being ever watchful around us. He raised his rifle to his shoulder and looked through the scope at something back behind me. Calmly he lowered the rifle and caught my attention and used his finger to discreetly call me over to him. I stood up and kept my back to the wall of the building and worked my way over to him.
Frank got the door opened and a moment later Maggie stood up holding something tightly in her hand, examining it. “Not a bad job at that” I heard her say to her father. I finally made it over to James who looked at me in the eyes and then glanced at something behind me. His mouth moved silently and I caught “...per” as his lips formed the last syllable. I nodded fractionally indicating that I understood. I turned my head enough to see Maggie walking towards the cinder-block wall, her hand out behind her holding the grenade. She tossed it over and then ducked. Seconds later there was a loud bang and a cloud of debris came flying past the top of the wall. Maggie ran back towards the truck. “Get outta here!!” she yelled. Frank moved pretty quick for a man of his age and made it back around to his side of his truck before Maggie reached the driver side of ours. I ran low as I could and got to the passenger side and in the truck, ducking low in the seat and held on.
I reached out and grabbed the new note from the steering wheel and likewise slumped down in my seat. Just in time too as a bullet slammed into the window behind us near where she sat and a hole appeared in the instrument panel. “Dammit!” she cursed and put the truck in reverse backing us out quickly. I heard and felt another bullet hit the tail gate of the truck. I envisioned one of the gas tanks springing a leak and spilling it's contents all inside the bed of the truck, but remembered that only half of the cans were filled. Maybe we got lucky. I peeked over the dash and out over the hood. Frank and James had already turned the corner of the building. Maggie stomped on the gas and managed to take the same corner without flipping us over.
Out in the front parking lot there lumbered along a few walkers who had been attracted by the explosion of the grenade and gunshots. One of them moved into Frank's path and was mowed down as he barreled out on to the road. Our front tire also hit it, causing us to jump a little. I stayed down until I felt that we were far enough out of range to sit up normally. “Are you alright?” I yelled over the roar of the engine. “Yeah, I'm fine, bastard shot at me dammit!” The look on her face was fury as she sat upright in the seat as well. “It wasn't enough to just plant a bomb hoping to get you but shooting at me, at us, just raised the stakes.” I was likewise angry but at the same time giddy with the thought that we escaped when I could've been taken out more than a dozen times, especially seeing that we found his bomb and it wasn't going to work. Just then, Frank's voice called out on the radio.
“You son-of-a-bitch I know you can hear me! You are officially on my shit list, soldier! Do you hear me?!” For some reason it struck me funnier than hell and I was about to laugh aloud when a reply came that chilled all our blood. A low laughter crackled on the speaker, then went dead. Maggie and I exchanged a look. Great, the guy was either completely nuts or supremely confident. Maggie kept driving, being nearly bumper to bumper with Frank as he lead the way. In two minutes we were on the interstate again, running for our lives.
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