Dead of Knight: A Zombie Apocalypse Survival Tale (16 page)

“Okay.  Is it alright if I get my mom and the kids to help out here?  They can be lookouts.  I want to protect them but they have really been wanting to help.”

“That’s fine,” I said.  “Armed though.  Let Mal have his knife and let Tabby bring her crossbow.”

“All right.  I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

When Sam came back out, everyone came with her.

“Lois, Mike, you guys don’t have to do this.”

“My husband gave his life so that we could have these supplies.  The least I could do is help finish the job.”

I nodded.  What could I say?  She was right and we needed the help.  If she still needed to grieve she could do it in her own way.

“Well then, here’s the plan.  Karen, Mal and Tabby, I am really glad that you guys could come out and help.”  I reached down and ruffled Mal’s hair then gave Tabby a hug.  I’ve not really seen much of them in the last 24 hours.

“I know that Mal and Tab could do the lookouts on their own, but after this morning I want a gun out here at all times.    So, Karen, stay with the kids.  Crossbows only for zombies.”

She nodded.

“The rest of us are carrying.  The water and food is going to the back room that we used for a crafts.  Is Thor in the house?”

“No,” said Sam.  “I put him out back when we came out.”

“Good, then we can leave the door open.  Crap, I forgot.  Sam, can you get us started?  I have something for Karen.”

As Sam got the task started, I opened the driver’s side door and reached behind the seat for the walkie-talkies.  After putting batteries in one and setting it to the right channel, I handed it to Karen.

“Call out if it’s something you can’t handle.  If it’s one or two zombies, just deal with it.  But, don’t hesitate if you need help.”

When I went into the bus to start carrying water, I was grateful that Sam reminded me to clean up the floor.  This was already a difficult task in what was a difficult day.  It took an hour with the four of us carrying stuff to unload everything.  When it was done we gathered at the bus.

“Christ, I’m hungry,” I said.  “All we ate today at the Costco was a few granola bars.”

“It’s catching up to me, too,” said Mike.   “Wish they would have had some of those great hot dogs waiting for us.”

“Damn, I forgot about those.  I’m gonna miss them in the zombie apocalypse.”

“Don’t get too far down memory lane, fellas,” said Sam.  “There’s nothing good down that way.  Focus on what we have now.”

“You’re right, honey.  I’m sorry.”

“I’ll go get dinner started.  Early dinner is a good idea now that we’re getting up with the sun.  We need to get to bed earlier, too.”

No argument from me,” I said.   “Mike, can I get you to come with me?  I want to move the bus a few doors down.”

“Sure.”

“Can I go, too?” asked Tabby.

“Me too, Dad,” said Mal.

Sam looked concerned.

“We can’t hide them from all of this forever,” I said.

“I know,” Sam said.  “Just be careful.”

“We will.  I want to ride around the neighborhood and see what is going on.  But, we won’t be long.”

Mike grabbed his crossbow and climbed aboard the bus.  I grabbed mine and watched the women go into the garage and close the door quietly.  I really had a great wife.  I climbed aboard and started the bus.  After closing the passenger door we were off.

“After what happened today, I want to take another look around the neighborhood.  We have different eyes than we did this morning.”

“You think there’s other groups out there like the one that hit us?” Mike asked.

“I’m sure there are somewhere.  I just want to see who’s close by.  We might find other survivors or we might find more enemies.  But, we need to find them before they find us.”

There were 2 main roads in the neighborhood and they were connected by about 3 cross streets.  We drove slowly up and down every one of them.  Most houses looked vacant.  There were about 30 zombies that we saw.  Most of them were milling about singly but a few were in groups of 2 or 3.  I ignored all of them but went by slowly so the kids could get a good look from the safety of the bus.  If the zombies weren’t otherwise occupied they staggered after the bus for a bit.  We found one house where the door was wide open and a car was in the ditch out front.  Two zombies were eating what had been the driver of the car just outside the vehicle on the ground.

“That couldn’t have happened but a few minutes ago,” I said.  “Keep your eyes open.”

We all looked around for someone that was living, but saw nothing.

“Maybe we should beep the horn?” said Tabby.

“That’ll bring all the zombies,” said Mike.

“Yeah, but we can get away quickly in the bus,” I said.  “Open a few of the windows so we can hear someone yelling for us.”

I gave them a chance to open a couple of windows then tapped the horn.  Both zombies looked up but quickly went back to their meal.  One or two zombies appeared from a yard down the road and started to shamble in our direction.  Then a voice came over the radio.

“You guys okay?  We heard the horn.”  It was Karen.  I had almost forgotten I had given her a radio.

“You guys heard that all the way at the house?” I asked.  “We’re several blocks away.”

“Yeah, we heard it over here,” said Sam who had probably snatched the radio out of Karen’s hands.  “Sound really travels when the world ends.  But, we asked if you were okay.”

“Relax, honey we’re fine.  We found a fresh victim and wanted to see if there was anyone hiding that we could help.  But, we don’t see or hear anything other than the damn moaning.”

“Alright, sorry.”

“No need to be sorry.  We only have a few more streets to cover than we’ll park the bus and head back.”

“10-4.”   Go Sam with the ten code.

We pulled away after a minute.  No one left alive here.  Near the other end of the neighborhood Mike spotted smoke coming from a chimney up ahead.  I stopped the bus.

“Well, this is a dilemma,” I said.

“They might need our help, daddy,” said Tabby.

“I want to help Tabby.  But I have to worry about you guys.  It might look like we have a lot of supplies but there are 7 of us.”  I almost said 8 of us and caught myself.  Was that just a few hours ago?  “Those supplies won’t last that long.”

“Even after what happened today,” said Mike.  “I refuse to believe that people aren’t worth helping.”

I sat in silence for a few moments.  No doubt, I was scared.  My most important job was taking care of my family and I saw today just how quickly bad shit can happen.  If I never saw another living human, I could live with that.  But, if I see someone and refuse to help then what am I?  I hung my head as I realized that he was right.

“You’re a better man than I am, Mike.”  I put the bus back into gear and slowly moved forward.  “House, come in house.”   I said into the radio.

“This is house,” said Karen.

“We’ve found a house that seems to be occupied.  We are going to stop and see if we can help or vice versa.  I’ll let you know what we find.”

“10-4, Ryan.  Be careful.”

“10-4.”

“Okay, listen up.  I want everyone to stay in the bus until they realize that we’re there.  Hopefully I won’t have to beep the horn.  Then I’ll get out with my hands up.  Then Tabby, Mal and finally Mike.  Leave the AR Mike.  Bring the crossbows.”

As we pulled into the driveway of the house there were 3 zombies in the front yard.  They looked up when they heard the bus.

“New plan.  Mike, cover the passenger side.  I don’t want any surprises.  Once Mike says it’s safe on that side you two come around with me.  Go.”

I toggled the passenger door as I spoke and jumped out my side.  One zombie was closer than the other two and I took it out with my crossbow.  As I reloaded, the kids came around the bus. 

“Tabby, can you do this?” I asked.

She nodded and raised her crossbow.  She was steadier than I thought she would be.  I wondered how much of that was for my benefit.  She squeezed the trigger but the shot went low into the zombies gut.

“Here.”  I handed her my crossbow and took hers to reload.  She took aim and this time hit her mark.

“Excellent, Tabby.  Great job!  Reload your crossbow.”

I took out the third zombie before it got any closer.  No accidents with the kids this close.  I reloaded and looked around.  We hadn’t attracted any more zombies.

“Clear,” I said only loud enough for Mike to hear.

“Clear,” Mike called back.

“Mal, you okay, buddy?” I asked.

“Yeah, but I didn’t get to do anything.”  He was resilient I’ll give him that.  Middle of the zombie apocalypse and he’s disappointed that he didn’t get to kill one at 6 years old.

“Hey, you did a good job on lookout while we were unloading the bus.  And I was watching you were really paying attention to what you were doing.  I was proud of you.”

Mal’s face brightened somewhat.

“I’ll tell you what, we’ll practice together with the crossbow in the backyard soon.  Alright?”

He nodded and looked pleased.  I ruffled his hair some more.

“Good job, Tabby.  You okay?” I asked.

“Yeah, when this first started I didn’t think I could do this.  I didn’t want to.  But I did didn’t I?”

“Yep, and you did great.”

“I don’t want to get any closer though,” she said.

“I’ll tell you something, neither do I.”  I hugged the kids then turned as the front door opened.

An older couple, maybe in their late sixties appeared at the door.  After a tense moment, the woman spoke.  She looked very grandmotherly.

“Thank you for doing that.”  The man nodded.

“We saw smoke coming from your chimney,” I said.  “Wanted to see if you were alright.  I’m Ryan Knight.  This is my daughter Tabitha and my son Malcolm.  That’s Mike Pickler on the other side of the bus.  We live around the corner on Johan.”

“I’m Beth and this is Tony.  We’re the Millers.  We’ve got firewood and food.  We’ve always kept extra food around.  But the water stopped flowing a few hours ago and we’re low on bottled water.”

I looked over at Mike and the young man nodded.  Sighing, I looked back at the Millers.

“If you feel comfortable doing it, grab your coats and come with us.  We have some supplies we can spare and the ladies back at the house are cooking dinner.  I’ve been away from the house a little longer than I should’ve been.  My wife is going to be cross.  The two of you could help me out with that.”  I smiled and the Millers chuckled.

“We’ll be out in a few minutes.”

Mike came around the bus and put his hand on my shoulder.

“God, knows I know it’s been a tough day.  But this is good.  It’s the right thing to do.”

“We went for supplies today and lost your father.  How many supplies runs can we make safely?  We’ll run out of people before the zombies get us.  We couldn’t even make one supply run safely.”

“That’s not true.  We cleared the convenience store together yesterday.  Then mom, dad and I cleared three more after you left.  And look at all the stuff you and Karen got from the Bass Pro Shop.”

“True.”

“We can’t just keep from becoming zombies.  It’s not enough.  We have to retain our humanity.”

“Damn, Mike.  That’s impressive.  Your father would be proud of you.  Shit, I’m proud.  Thanks for keeping me human.”

Mike smiled and we shared a moment.  Then the Millers came out and we mounted up.

When we pulled into the driveway the garage door went up and Sam came out.

“What happened?  Where have you been?  We tried to call.”

“Whoa, slow down.  We’re fine.  Everything’s fine.  Must be the batteries that came with the walkie.  They always put crap batteries in the packages.”  Sam grabbed me and the kids and hugged us all tightly.

“When we couldn’t get a hold of you…”

“I get it.  But we’re fine.  We found the Millers.”  Before I could continue, Tabby interrupted.

“And I killed my first zombie!”

“Ryan?”  I got the look from my wife.  You know the look…

“It was from a safe distance and I was right next to her.  She was never in any danger.  She did great, by the way.”  Sam smiled at Tabby but then her face changed when she looked back at me.

“We’ll talk later.”

Then she turned to the Millers and her whole demeanor changed.

“Hello.  I’m glad to meet you.  Especially in these trying times.  I’m Samantha Knight.  This is my mother, Karen.  And this is Lois Pickler, Mike’s mom.  I trust that you’ve been properly introduced to the others?” said Sam.

“Yes.  I’m Beth Miller and this is my husband, Tony.  We are very pleased to meet you all.  Your husband, Mike and the kids all came to our rescue.  We are very grateful.”

“Folks,” I said.  “Let’s take this inside please.”

With everyone inside, I closed up the garage rollup quietly then paused.  It was nice to meet other living people that weren’t trying to kill us.  But, maybe the timing of this wasn’t so good.  We would have to take them back after dark.