Surviving The Zombie Apocalypse (Book 3): Salvation (25 page)

Once
upon a time there were small minorities of Christians, Hindus, and a few other
faiths in that region. These are apparently gone. While the Caliphate says they
perished in the zombie apocalypse, I think they were killed so they couldn’t
compete for limited resources. They were generally reviled by the Muslim
majority before the change, so such an excuse could realistically lead to their
extermination. It hadn’t taken much more for the Ottoman Turks to wipe out a
couple million Armenians back around WWI.

It was
also the Caliphate who started the nuclear war, and they have admitted to this
with a great deal of pride. Unfortunately, there is also a great deal of
confusion on the details, along with serious questions about whether or not the
explosions in China were in any way related. Also, some of the launches did not
work as intended and may have hit the wrong targets. It is likely there was
some infighting as well, with various factions targeting political opponents
instead of the infidels. The Caliphate does not appear to be well run.

America’s
information regarding this new player remains limited, and what the island
government has acquired is sketchy and unreliable at best. We don’t even know
if there is an actual Caliph or not. You would think one exists, since it is
supposed to be the Caliphate, but for all anybody knows, the Muslims may have
just announced its restoration leaving the details for later.

No one,
and I do mean no one, has opened a dialogue with this group. The insistence on
outright surrender and conversion, along with launching unprovoked nuclear
attacks, put a damper on that. It would be remiss if I failed to point out that
they offered an alternative to conversion. Those who refused to become Muslims
would be allowed to keep their lives provided they accepted second class
citizenship with next to no rights and an extra heavy tax burden. Again, this
is straight out of the Quran, and the Caliphate’s message quoted the verses for
easy reference. That was nice of them.

Following
the nuclear detonations, the British seized all weapons previously controlled
by France, having long known of their location. America helped with this too,
primarily by providing logistical support and transportation. During this
process a few random breathers were also located. All were taken to Ireland.

The
Chinese arsenal is believed to be under their control, and they said they were
recovering whatever North Korea had on hand. However, they might very well be
like the Americans and Russians and lack the ability to physically retrieve
every last warhead and missile. If that is the case, they seem to be
monitoring, and the Caliphate or any independent parties should be detected
before they can commit atomic robbery.

Israel
still refuses to admit whether or not they have weapons, to everyone’s chagrin.
Come on now, we are living through the zombie apocalypse. The old world order
that made such statements politically and militarily beneficial no longer
exist. They really should reconsider and just admit they have an extensive
supply of nuclear warheads. I’m assuming, along with ninety nine percent of the
people on Earth, that this is the case.

Nobody
knows what is going on regarding India’s weapons.

Chapter VIII

The next
few weeks passed quickly and with only a modicum of excitement. The soldiers
who had been stationed in the Black Hills were transferred out, their families going
with them. I realize I only glossed over this group previously, due to their
roles being related to training and not fighting, but when I initially
requested assistance from the government I specifically asked for such people.
We already had plenty of fighters. Also, unlike Yellowstone, I wasn’t ready to
hand off any real power or authority to an outsider. Our settlement had come a
long way, and we had things running in a manner that was efficient and suited
our temperament.

I would
miss a few of the people. None were in my immediate circle of friends, but I
did know several fairly well personally and had worked with all of them. Steph
reserved our largest hall for the families so they could hold farewell dinners,
and she had the community kitchen prepare a variety of special dishes.

Marcus
continued to recover, as did Lizzy who would likely have already been up and
running about had she not torn her stitches in a fit of rage. His downtime did
not prevent the man from asking me repeatedly to speed up the timetable for
dealing with The Brotherhood. Bear in mind that I hadn’t offered a timeline,
nor did I intend to. The pressure was frustrating, to say the least.

“Had a
long talk with April,” said Briana.

“Who’s
that?”

We were
walking along the top of the outer wall, the crenellated barrier that separated
our valley from the remainder of the Black Hills. A great deal of work had gone
into its construction, but it had never been needed. Considering the quality of
our outer defenses, and our ability to move and quickly react, I doubted it
ever would. If the wall did become the center of a battle, that would indicate
we were pretty much screwed. The thing was fun to stroll across though, and
children loved racing the length.

“A
girlfriend of…”

“One of
those who went to the lake with Marcus?” I finished.

“Yes,
Tyler, and don’t be interrupting.” Briana thumped me on the shoulder.

“Sorry
about that.”

“She is
upset and angry and hurting, and April is going to start causing trouble if we
don’t make some announcements about what we are going to do.”

“Housekeeping
takes precedence,” I replied. “We get our outer defenses improved, let Renee
and Lizzy finish redoing the militia and putting together a list of who can go
on the strike, and take time to review the pictures in detail.”

The
government over on the islands was taking photos every time a satellite passed
overhead, and these were forwarded on to us for review, along with notes from
their experts. Personally, I can’t tell too much from the things, but the
military and intelligence guys have located dormitories, the armory,
storehouses, individual homes, and determined the probable purpose of most
other structures. They were really quite good, or they might be using fancy
computer programs. I didn’t know, nor did it matter.

“Next
time someone asks about it, show them one of the satellite photos and say we
are using these to find the best way to move in and keep any more of us from
getting killed.”

“That
might help,” she agreed. “I just wish a few would complain to you instead.”

“You are
way easier to approach than me.” This I accepted as one of those unalterable laws
that define our universe. “They like you more. Sweetie, you have to face facts.
You are a much nicer person. Cuter too.”

“I am
definitely prettier than you, but it’s not like you aren’t a nice person.”

I waved
that off. “Nice enough, but with me spending my time fighting, getting ready to
fight, or out scavenging for food and hunting down zombies, I think some people
get apprehensive about how I might react.”

She paused
and leaned against one of the stone battlements. We had lookouts on the walls,
but none were near us.

“Not
that I ever, ever react badly to things.”

Briana
snorted. “Yeah, right. I just wish we could blame it on Hawaii, say it’s them
taking forever with the analysis or something.”

I slid
an arm about her waist. “Go ahead and blame them. Doesn’t matter. Might even be
good if it calms people down until after the Fourth of July. I don’t want to go
running off before one of our holidays, not if we don’t have to.”

“Our
official government would love getting the blame.”

“Who
cares? They’re all the way over there. Besides, I’m still pissed they didn’t
help more with the raiders, although I will admit, under protest, that their
being worried about one of the nukes hitting Oahu or another island was valid,
at the time.”

“Scrap
the Fourth of July,” said Briana, “You aren’t leaving until after your birthday
party. And no candles!”

“I will
have candles on my cake,” I retorted, pinching her bottom. She squealed. “Forty
of them in a big circle.”

“I do
not want to be reminded of how old you are.”

I
smiled. “No one cares anymore that I’m twice your age. Those days are way in
the past. You are the only person who still gets upset at the thought. Time for
you to get over it, Briana.”

Green
eyes met mine.

“Fine.
You can have your candles, but no signs or anything that says you’re turning
forty.”

“Agreed.
I’ll let Asher help me blow them out.”

Briana
softened. “He’ll like that. You know, I think I’ll start telling those who ask
or complain that we are looking at the second week in July, give or take. It’s
vague enough that we have wiggle room, and close enough that they shouldn’t be
too disappointed or thinking we’re ignoring the issue.”

“Works
for me.”

*
* *

The
Fourth of July rolled around, and we had one of our big, community wide
parties. There were games for the children, including sack races, obstacle
courses, slip and slides, a bounce house we found in Rapid City, and lots of
piñatas full of treats. For the adults, there was food and drink. While we
brewed huge amounts of beer, mostly because fermentation helped purify the
water, drunkenness was frowned on. That did not apply to today, however. We
also had adult races with the most popular being men having to push their lady
friends the length of the valley and back in wheelchairs. Most never completed
the six mile circuit, but that did nothing to lessen the entertainment value.

After
the contests ended and before the fireworks, which were scavenged like everything
else, the populace gathered at the base of the citadel for the naming of our
town. There had been hundreds of nominations, literally hundreds. The crazy and
nonsensical were discarded. Those that seemed appropriate or had an explanation
attached were printed and posted around the town for everyone to see and
evaluate.

A long
line formed and people took turns dropping a single marble into the appropriate
bucket. Those who couldn’t be present due to work schedules or whatever had the
opportunity to cast their vote earlier. It was important to be fair. Each of
the containers was covered with a piece of leather that had a small hole cut in
it. That was to prevent people from guessing what the voting trend was when
their turn came. In front of each was one of the final possible names.

“No
dawdling,” ordered Briana.

The man
blushed slightly and deposited his marble, moving aside. The last few were
waiting for their turn.

“There
was a lot of discussion as to who should count the votes,” I declared, as soon
as everyone had finished. “I wanted to do it, but it seems there are those who
doubt my impartiality. Some even said I could be bribed.”

“No!”
shouted a few people.

“Wanna
bet!” called back Lizzy. She was sitting off to the side, refilling water
pistols for some of the smaller children.

“It
takes a lot to bribe Jacob,” confirmed Briana, “sometimes as many as two or
three blueberry pies.” She waved at Steph. “Blame her for any bizarre rules we
might have.”

There
were more laughs. The amount of alcohol consumed likely helped. I don’t think
we were nearly as funny as we hoped.

“Due to
all these baseless accusations, I have decided to let Mary do the counting.
There is no one more objective in the world than a teenage girl.”

The
laughs that followed this statement where more than justified, and my daughter
joined in wholeheartedly as she leapt out of her seat and pulled the covers off
the buckets.

“Valley
Town is out of the running,” she stated. “It only got…” She double checked the
count. “…nineteen votes.”

That
bucket was taken away and set to the side.

“Another
low count is Valleyville.” Mary looked out at the audience. “I’m sure no one is
too surprised since it sounds like an Internet game.”

“What’s
an Internet?” asked Asher. He was in Briana’s lap.

“I’ll
tell you later,” she replied, whispering.

Mary
removed all the other low votes one by one until only four buckets remained.

“We are
pretty even on three of these,” she announced, lifting each so she could rattle
the marbles within. “One is way on top though.” Mary paused for a moment,
allowing the suspense to build. “And the name of our town is… Baltis!”

I’d
expected as much. As to why someone suggested naming the town after a four
thousand mile long lava channel on the planet Venus, I can’t even begin to
guess. There can’t be more than a handful who even knew what the name referred
to. However, this was one of the nominations that came with an explanation
attached, and talk of how cool it would be to name our town, which sat in a
long, narrow, and deep valley, after a planetary feature soon erupted. It was
clearly the favorite going in.

“Baltis
it is,” I confirmed, glancing at the buckets. It certainly had the lion’s share
of votes. “We do, however, need a name for our teeny, tiny, secondary
settlement over by the valley wall.”

Lizzy
shot me a glare. She lived there with many of the militia members, including
those tasked with manning the barrier, and did not like to have it demeaned in
any way.

“I’m
going to abuse my authority and name that one myself. Since the big town is
Baltis, let’s call the little one Venusville.”

My
friend’s dirty looks increased. Surrounded by children who couldn’t care less
what the place was named – they were focused on Lizzy dipping their water
pistols into the rain barrel so they could continue spraying unsuspecting
friends and parents – she was in no position to blow up. Kids are a wonderful
restraint on her otherwise cantankerous behavior.

*
* *

“That’s
it. Get out and go home. It’s way past civilized hours. You should be in bed. Mary,
that goes for you too.”

“But,
Dad!”

“No buts,
young lady,” added Briana. “Jacob’s birthday is tomorrow, and there’s a lot to
do in the morning. We need our rest, me most of all. We’ll see you then,
Michael.”

“Goodnight,
ma’am.”

Briana
winced slightly. She got the same from people significantly older than she on a
regular basis, and with her position she couldn’t comment, not without looking
undignified. That did nothing to lessen her discomfort.

“Night
night.” Mary walked him to the door.

The lad
had a long hike back to Venusville – the name which I gave partly in jest had
been quickly accepted; go figure – where he was currently staying, unless he
stopped off at his uncle’s cabin instead. If our roles were reversed, that was
what I’d do. Walking to the far end of the valley in the dark was no fun. We
had a road, but there was livestock roaming about. Stepping in something smelly
was a common occurrence and never enjoyable.

“Get
here early, and you can help me get things ready,” she finished.

“Labor
is good,” I agreed, “but Michael, understand, you will be laboring if you show
up early, not flirting with my daughter. And speaking of flirting, you better
not be thinking of doing anything perverse with Mary.” I’d long ago perfected a
false look of outrage. “I’ve been noticing the way you look at her, especially
over the past few days, and I don’t like it.”

His eyes
went wide. Michael might have even begun to hyperventilate.

“Dad!”
Mary was mortified.

“Sir, I
would never… I mean…”

“Dad!”

I had
both of them in a complete panic. Hee Hee. I might be going to Hell for this,
but it sure was a lot of fun. Besides, I knew they were behaving. Tara and Dale
had confirmed that, not to mention their duties prevented them from being alone
most of the time.

“Jacob
is kidding,” said Briana. “You know how he likes to amuse himself.”