Chapter Four

10 Days After

They moved from the cramp quarters of the general store to a house down the street that have a good vantage point of the town. Once the team, Jackson, and the ten town's people that stayed with them settled in, they got to work securing the property. They boarded up the first floor windows and surrounded the property with pieces of metal attached to fishing line to act as a sort of alarm system. They then assigned watch shifts to those who were able enough.

Ziva spent the first couple days in their new "home" helping Abby and Ducky manage the food and water supply. They were able to ration everything out so everyone in the house got an appropriate amount of food and water. They had enough to last them almost two weeks, but Ziva knew they would probably have to go out and search for more sooner than that. The small amount of food allotted to her might hold her over each day, but the elderly and the children in their group would need more than the rationed proportions.

She felt sorry for the two children in their group. Only a few days before they were carefree and allowed to be young and wild, and now over the last few days they were forced to grow up entirely too quick. It reminded her of her own childhood in a way, or lack thereof. She prayed to whatever god that was out there that this was over soon.

On the tenth day since leaving DC, Ziva found herself sitting on the deck of the house with her rifle in her lap watching the sun rise. It had been quiet since they moved into the house. She didn't know if that was a good or bad thing. She heard the door open and turned to head to see Tony coming out of the house with two mugs in his hand.

"Tea," he said, handing her a mug and sitting on the wooden rocking chair next to her. "What's left of my share that is."

"You are up earlier," Ziva responded. "You're not due to take over watch for another half hour."

"Abby woke me up when you sent her to bed. You shouldn't be alone out here."

Ziva took a sip of the tea and smiled. He prepared it just the way she liked it. She loved that he remembered those small details. "She was tired. I can handle things myself," she then answered, glancing over at him. Abby was going to be no help if she fell asleep on watch even if all stayed quiet.

"I know, but still…" He trailed off and Ziva watched him look up and down the road. "See anything?"

"No. Abby saw a raccoon, but that was it." She took another sip of tea. "It has been…worrisome."

"How so?"

"Well, on our way here and before we moved up here we saw the infected all over, and now, there is nothing…nobody. It is strange."

"Yea, I know," Tony sighed. "Gibbs has been trying to hail the safe zone camp on the radio. Well, I think he's trying to get in contact with anyone at this point to look for news, but no one's answering. I think he wants to make a trip over to the camp later today."

"I'll go with him."

"Ziva, you need to sleep," Tony responded with concern in his voice. "When was the last time you slept? You always take the night watch and then you're up and about all day long."

"I am fine," Ziva rolled her eyes. She felt a bit touched that he was concerned, but she knew sooner or later someone was going to notice her busy schedule. The truth was that she hadn't been able to sleep more than an hour or two at a time since the outbreak started. The night they fled DC the air had been filled with the sound of explosions and gunfire. It was nearly impossible to try to sleep with those noises echoing through the warehouse.

Ziva was scared and she didn't want to admit it. She was afraid to see the faces of the infected in her dreams. She was afraid that if she went to sleep something would happen. She was afraid that if she went to sleep she would lose Tony, would lose her friends and her family. "There is work that needs done and I want to help." It wasn't a lie. Working around the house made her feel like she was being useful. She was never one to just be idle.

"You're not going to be any help when you collapse from exhaustion." Tony sighed. "What's going on, Zi?"

"Nothing. I am fine," she repeated, draining the liquid from her mug. If she didn't change the subject now, Tony would never stop questioning her. "Thank you for the tea." She then checked her watch and stood from her seat. "You better go wake McGee. It will be your turn to take over soon." With one last glace to Tony, she left the porch to walk around the perimeter of the property one more time.

XXX

"Think we'll find anything?" McGee asked Tony as they walked to the truck Gibbs was starting.

"A camp full of people," Tony said confidently, glancing over his shoulder back to the house. Ziva was back on the porch with Jackson, Abby, and Greg. She hadn't taken his advice and got some sleep. Instead she immediately started help prepare breakfast for the group along with Ducky and Jackson when her watch was over. She wanted to come with them, but Gibbs talked her into staying with the group.

"Don't you think someone would have answered Gibbs' radio hails by now though?" McGee brought up. "Everything's been silent since they stopped broadcasting the message about the safe zones five days ago."

Tony turned his head from the house to McGee. "I'm sure it's fine," he said as McGee's words echoed in his mind. "We're gonna go there. Gibbs is going to talk to whoever is in charge and find out what's happening and maybe talk them into giving us some food and water and all will be well."

"I have a bad feeling about this," McGee sighed as they climbed into the truck.

Tony hated to admit it, but he had a bad feeling too.

The camp was less than ten miles away from Stillwater so it was a short trip from the house to where the camp was located. They could see bits of fence through the trees and a large American flag flying over the camp. Gibbs parked the truck down the road before leading the two to the chain link fences that surrounded the safe zone. As they rounded a cluster of trees that kept the majority of the safe zone from view, the stink of death came over them. It as then Tony heard the noises, and the sounds of moans and snarls filled his ears.

"What happened?" McGee asked, his eyes wide as they moved along the fence.

In front of them were what seemed like hundreds of zombies behind the fences. Many of them were in civilian clothing, but there were many others in army uniforms. They moved around the fenced in area quickly as though they were looking for a way to escape. From where Tony was standing, he could see the gates of the camp had been chained shut. Whoever escaped at least tried to contain the undead.

Gibbs hurried the two younger men into the tree line to keep them hidden. "Camp fell," he said, answering McGee's previous question. "Someone must have been infected and spread the virus."

"Ziva said that would happen," Tony whispered, remember the conversation they had on the drive out of DC. "She said it would only take one person…"

"Now what, boss?" McGee then asked.

Gibbs didn't answer right away. Tony noticed the silver haired man surveying the scene in front of them with calculating eyes. "We go back to Stillwater and tell them what happened. There's too many of them and not enough of us to clear the camp out."

"Maybe if we can open the gates and control how many come out we could clear it out," McGee suggested.

Gibbs shook his head. "Too dangerous," he said.

Tony sighed. "Sucks we're losing all that food and water. We're going to need all that soon." As much as he wanted McGee's plan to work, he knew it wouldn't. Like Gibbs said, it was too dangerous. To clear out possibly hundreds of zombies, they would need their own army. Their only hope was that the zombies would decay into nothing but bones, which according to Ducky, was probably unlikely to happen anytime soon.

"We'll find more." Gibbs nodded his head towards the truck and led the way back.

Tony didn't want to think about the reactions of the group once they told them the safe zone was gone. He could only imagine the fate of all the other camps and he knew what it meant for them now. They were truly on their own.