She reached in and grabbed the keys, they had several keys and a Texas Longhorn’s key chain, but the jeep key was pretty obvious. She stepped back looking back to where her car was, she would bring everything over and load the jeep before pulling the man out.
A little over an hour later she had the jeep loaded with her gear and the stuff she had gotten out of a few of the other cars, she had even found a map with a national park circled, the very same park she was heading too. She thought she knew the way but the map helped and she was not about to leave it behind.
Elephant Rock Park had been where
her dad
had hauled her and
her mom
kicking and screaming every year until she had moved out. Ceara thanked god now because she knew just what part of the park she wanted to go and have some of the amenities like running water.
Once everything was loaded she didn’t have any other thing to do but pull the man out of the driver’s seat. Taking a deep breath as she pulled open the door, she didn’t think the man had begun decomposing, but the smell was horrible. She grabbed his arm and soon found that the clothes had hid the decaying form. The man’s arm ripped off wit
h a
nauseating sound, Ceara gagged as she tossed the arm aside. Reaching back in not sure how to get him out now, what if something else ripped off? Ceara ran around to the passenger side and jumped in, she began kicking at the man to push him out but he wouldn’t budge, Ceara was in tears, “GET OUT GOD DAMN YOU!!”
She kicked several more times before she saw the seat belt, reaching over she quickly released it and the man just fell out of the jeep with a sickening plop. Wiping her brow feeling like an idiot, she climbed over to the driver’s seat and started the jeep. She threw it into reverse and pulled away from the man’s body, then threw it back in park. That’s when she saw the gas gauge, it was on empty. She hit the steering wheel, “Well, Fuck me!”
Maximus suddenly jumped in the jeep causing her to scream, “Damn it Max don’t do that!”
She laid her head on the steering wheel as she killed the engine again, “We ain’
t going just yet, we need gas.”
Ceara had thought about just finding another car but this was the only jeep and she would need it to get through some of the off road things she knew she would be doing. If she was going to get gas she would have to siphon it out of some of the other cars. Most cars ran on unleaded but a few trucks she thought ran on diesel so she would avoid any trucks, but how would she even begin? She climbed back out of the jeep and looked around wondering if any o
f these cars even had much gas.
Ceara knew from all the movies she had seen that she needed a garden hose
,
but she only needed a part of one. Well right now she didn’t even have a full water hose or a knife to cut it up. “Okay first things first, look for some kind of hose. Most cars wouldn’t be carrying a hose in the trunk so she focused on trucks, hoping one was coming from a landscaping job. Glancing over the bridge she saw a dead Mexican man on the highway, she knew it was racist but she hoped he was coming from mowing a yard. She grabbed her gun and headed down the on ramp to scavenge
through several of the trucks.
In one truck she found a tool box, she had no clue how to use most tools but she had time to learn or she hoped she did.
Ceara could hear her father’s voice from several years ago, “Ceara you are going to wish you had listened to me one day. I’m trying to teach you this stuff ‘cause one day I ain’t gonna be around to do it for you.”
She
thought he was crazy trying to teach her how to do crap with her car and how to fix stuff around the house, hell in truth she simply thought he wished he had a son. Ceara didn’t realize how right he was till that second. She set the toolbox
on the shoulder and got back to looking for the hose. Leaning into a truck bed looking around, tossing trash and beer cans aside, suddenly a hand had her ankle. Ceara grabbed a rail that had been welded to the bed of the truck pulling herself into the truck bed. She spun onto her back in time to see the deader reaching for her again; Ceara leveled the gun at the girls head and pulled the trigger.
Nothing happen, she quickly flipped the safety and tried again
, at least now she would know if it was loaded.
The girl’s head exploded causing the blood to splatter on Ceara. She crawled her way to the other side of the bed,
lying
a hand on just what she needed, a water hose. Terrified to get back out of the truck bed she just sat
there;
Maximus came trotting up sniffing the dead
girl’s
body growling. “You’re a bit late”
Ceara thought with Maximus there it was safe to get out. She climbed out very much on guard again, she had known better than to believe it was safe. Finding a knife on a decayed m
an
or what she thought was a man, he was to decomposed to really know, it was what she had always
heard was called a Rambo knife.
She found what she needed and didn’t want to stay here any longer than needed, the sun was setting and night without cover with deaders around wasn’t a good idea. She grabbed the hose and cut a long section then headed back up to the vehicles on the ramp with the knife, hose and toolbox. The tools came in handy almost immediately, several cars had locking gas caps and Ceara had used the screwdriver to pop them open. The first was disgusting, Ceara had grabbed her gas cans from the jeep and went to a larger car hoping it held more gas, after popping the cap she slide the hose down the tank and sucked on the hose for a few minutes, then decided she must not have it in far enough.
Pushing in as far as she dared wanting to make sure the other end would still reach the gas can, she started sucking on the hose again thinking it would take longer because of how much hose was in the tank. Suddenly she had a mouthful of gas and was gagging letting gas just run onto the road. She moved the end into the can as
she continued to spit gas out.
The idea that the larger car would have more gas was not
true;
it ran out before her can was even half full. She had to do this process several more times before the jeep tank was full and both
cans
were too. Soon her and Maximus where driving away, she wanting to get at least to the Missouri state line before finding somewhere to sleep, they pulled over in an empty field and she slept for a couple of hours but the thought of deaders walking up
kept her from truly sleeping
.
Pulling back on the road she made it to Elephant Rock Park the next afternoon, part of the park looked like someone had blown up some of the area that made Ceara wonder if this was a good choice. She thought deaders must be around or no one would blow up things. The first camp site’s bathrooms were gone, all that remained was rubble. Making her way further into the camp she found a spot and threw the jeep into park, “Well
I guess this is home for now.”
She opened the door and Maximus bolted out before s
he could, “Well jeezes manners”
Maximus was marking all the trees, but stopped sniffing the air, “What? Do you smell one of them?” He growled, taking off through the trees leaving
Ceara no choice but to follow.
Charlie
silently
stirred his stew. It was hot and steaming, hell the old man even had salt n pepper. Taking small bites and savoring every bite he told Alden his story complete with being an orphan all the way through to killi
ng his surrogate f
ather. Tears came to his eyes as he told that part. Trying hard to hide them from, what to him, seemed like the toughest son of a bitch Charlie had ever met.
The old man hadn’t given Charlie any reason to really think that other than he seemed to know a lot about camouflaging things and he knew how to make a small fire that was warm but didn’t put out a lot o
f light or smoke. He also made
the best cup of coffee Charlie had ever tasted. “Sir, I want to thank you for being so nice to me. I really haven’t seen anyone since the shit went down. especially after…..”
Charlie paused as Alden looked to him, “Since when what” he asked?”
Charlie went on and told him about the story of Humansville and the three army helicopters. He watched as Alden sat there listening almost as if Charlie was recounting a high school football game. To him he was showing little interest at all.
Alden looked up, “Three you say?”
“Yes” Charlie replied,
“
they came in the form of a.”
Alden cut him off, “A VEE?”
“Yeah”, Charlie replied, “Then the lead one came back a
round and hovered over my van.”
“That’s typical cover three. If the lead one had seen anything or one of the others had seen you pop up while the lead was blinded
,
you and I wouldn’t be having this little chat. The
y’d
fried your van and your ass.”
Charlie swallowed hard. “You mean I was right
,
they meant to kill me?”
“Yeah kid
,
but don’t take it personal
,
it would have just been your turn.”
Charlie got up and walked around inside their little camp shaking his head. “
Look Sir,”
Alden held up a hand, “Son let’s get something straight right here and now. You can call me Alden or Al or Mr.Godfrey. But son
,
I was an enlisted man in the
A
rmy
,
so I worked for a living. Don’t call me Sir. Besides
,
it makes me feel like your grandpa and I damn sure never been to Topeka.”
Charlie sh
ot him a look then continued, “
I mean
,
I thought the government was
supposed to
protect us not kill us.”
A
lden
grinned as he sipped his coffee, “Yeah….
Well,
that was then
… this is now.”
“Goddamn … err I mean geez,” Stopping as he remem
bered his Catholic upbringing, l
ooking down
,
“Sorry about that.”
Alden looked up from his coffee, “bout what?”
Charlie just looked at the old man, thinking maybe he was right. The whole world as he knew it was changing right before his eyes. Manners seemed to be a thing of the past as would be polite graces and everything else he’d been taught. Charlie never had a problem cussing when he was by himself, but Carl had taught him when he was around other people he should always watch his language. Charlie poured another cup and offered Alden some. Alden raised his cup but before it was full he put his hand up, then took a small flask out of his vest and poured some liquid into the coffee.
Charlie watched then asked, “Hey
,
can I have a bit of that?”
Alden grinned, “Sure kid.”
C
harlie held out his cup as Alden poured just a little in. Charlie took a sip while the old man put the flask away. His eyes squinted and his lips puckered as the burning liquid flowed down his throat along with the hot coffee. When it hit bottom it was all Charlie could do to keep it from hitting reverse and coming back up. Alden burst out laughing from watching the young man’s reaction. “Well I guess this is a day of firsts for you.”
Charlie looked and started to speak but found that the liquid and burned his vocal cords out, this simple act caused Alden to almost fall over laughing, “Yes Sir
’r
ee,
y
our first time getting almost shot by the army, your first time busted coming out of a public shower bare ass to the world and now your first taste of Southern Comfort.”
Charlie’s face turned red as his feelings were hurt then he too started laughing. He didn’t know why but just the way the old guy had said it he knew it had to look funny. Charlie started laughing right along with Alden. As the
Moment
died down, Charlie looked to the old man. “So Sir, what’s your story?”
Before he could answer the large red dog jumped up and looked to the north. Alden moved like a flash pouring the coffee on the fire and turning off the Coleman lantern. Grabbing Charlie by the arm he pulled him out of their make-shift camp and pushed him towards the woods while he was grabbing a black nylon bag. As they reached the edge Alden pulled out two army poncho’s and rubbed them into the cool grass. Whispering to Charlie, “You put this on and stay low under those bushes.”
“
Why? What’s going on i
s it the biters?” Charlie asked
“No, no something worse just wait for it boy, it school time. Pay attention to everything that’s going on around you. The smell of the air the sound of the air,”
Charlie interrupted, “What the hell do you mean the sound of the air?” Just then he heard it somewhere there was a soft thumping sounding that seemed to be getting louder.
Helicopters appeared out of nowhere only the little lights under them were visible at first but then whole outline of a six of them. Charlie looked to the old man who was crouched down under the next bush. His voice low
and
quiet, “Stay put, don’t move at all and stay under that poncho. They won’t be able to see you…”
Charlie watched as Alden’s head turned away from the direction of the helicopters, looking back behind him. “Can you smell them Charlie?”
All Charlie could smell was his own piss running down his leg. He’d heard about people being so scared they did that but always thought it was just a rumor. Charlie tried to look where Alden was pointing. At first he saw nothing then he saw the bodies moving in the moonlight, through the shadows. It was then that he smelled the rotting flesh. “Biters”, he whispered.
Alden looked at him a bit confused then nodded. Putting his fingers to his lips he then pointed to the helicopters. They formed up in a U shape and were flying just over the tree tops. Charlie could only watch and take direction from the old man, How could he trust someone he had just met with his life but it seemed like the right thing to do at this
Mom
ent.
Charlie watched as the helicopters sat directly over them. He had learned
quickly
from the old man. “Listen to the air???”
The sound of the whooping blades then a sudden whirring sound, then guns and rockets fired. The explosions were deafening, the ground was shaking from rockets and bullets hitting the biters directly in front of them
,
only Alden screaming over the roar made him stay where he was at. “YOU KEEP YOUR FUCKING ASS RIGHT THERE OR I SWEAR TO YOUR GOD I’LL BLOW YOUR FUCKING BALLS OFF”.
The firing went on for what seemed like forever. Then it suddenly stopped and spotlights came on from the helicopters as they circled the killing field which was less than fifty yards in front of Charlie and Alden. Again Alden made a motion telling Charlie to not move. The helicopters formed up and the lights went out as the turned and headed back from where they came.
Charlie started to get up and was knocked down by Alden he put his hand over Charlie
’
s mouth then pointed off to the east. It took a
moment
but he caught the glimpse of movement, it wasn’t the stagger that biters did
,
but was more precise. It was humans
,
Charlie watched as Alden pulled his poncho around him and moved silently away. Charlie was crouched down and could
hear
the footsteps getting closer. He lifted the poncho just an inch and saw a man with strange goggles looking away from him. The man turned and looked right at Charlie then raised his rifle to shoot. A sudden bang followed by a bright flash blinded Charlie as the gun fired and the round landed right next to his leg which then caused Charlie to lose all control of his bowels. The next thing he heard was the soldiers body hit the ground and what sounded like three more men running right to him.
He was blinded by the flash and had lost all his night vision he could only make out shadows but what he saw terrified him. This nice old man he had eaten with and laughed with took out all three of the soldiers in a matter of seconds. He watched as he sliced the first the ones throat with one swipe of his knife. The second took the same knife directly into his throat. The third turned to run but only got a couple of steps when the old man grabbed him and snapped his neck around. The
n
it was quiet, not even the sound of crickets chirping.
Alden gathered up the weapons, goggles and the rest of the gear then walked up to Charlie as he was still crouched and shaking horribly, he reached down and pulled the poncho of him. Charlie gasped, “What the hell was that? Why did he try to kill me? Have they all gone fucking nuts?”
Alden grabbed Charlie by the arm. “They got their orders son and we got ours. It’s kill or be killed and there are no more ROE’S.”
Charlie shook his leg to get the shit off his ass. “What the hell are ROE’S,” he asked as looked down and kept shaking his leg.
Alden chuckled, some hippiefied bullshit they came up with after Vietnam, it’s rules of engagement.”
Charlie shook his leg again and Alden laughed as he walked him back to camp.” Charlie smiled as the old man had said nothing of the smell but he knew what Charlie had done. “You know Sir… err Al, your right it has been a day of firsts, that was also the first time I ever was shot at and pissed and shit myself….. too bad there ain’t some hot redhead waiting for me back at the camp so I could get my first blow job and piece of ass to
complete my day of firsts.”