Chapter 15: Let's Fly

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Later that day Harry had an idea. He hunted down Sirius. He found him in his office, just getting ready to leave. "Hey, Sirius, did you get any motorcycles when we left England?"

"A few, why?" the man said, sitting back down and waving Harry to take a seat.

"You can charm them to fly, right?" was the eager question. He sat in the chair indicated, like any other teenager, as in flopped and slouched.

"Yeah," Sirius said slowly, wondering where he was going with this.

"Can you make it so non-magicals can fly them?" Harry asked, sitting up straighter as if the answer would come faster.

"Yes," was the excited reply. Now, he understood.

"Cars too?" the question came out fast. Excitement was filling the air.

"Yup," Sirius said with a huge smile. "I'll need help, but yeah. I like where you're going with this." He already knew who he'd get to help, but if Harry's idea was to be pulled off it would be a great boon to the whole community.

"Can you do a cattle truck? Like the one we found on the highway?" the teen inquired, this time hesitantly. That was a huge truck after all, but…

"That'll take a bit more umph, but yeah it can be done," Sirius said seriously, his eyes focusing inward, like he was going over the logistics to make it happen.

"That farmer that you guys talked to," Harry said, thoughtfully, "will he know other farmers, not in our wards?"

"Probably," was the answer. Sirius was still going over how to make an eighteen-wheeler fly.

"What if you get with him and go either save them or take what's left of their farms if they are already gone. I mean, if they are alive, raise the wards to keep the dead out Maybe we could save more people and get cattle and such. I know from the survivors, that the zombies eat livestock. We should try to save as many as we can."

"I like it," the dogman said, paying attention now that he figured his problem out. "Let me get with Tonks and we'll head out first thing tomorrow."

"Great," was the enthusiastic reply. Harry was delighted that his ideas would come to fruition.

"I'll magic up some motorbikes and see if Daryl knows how to drive one. He seems the type," Sirius said, thinking on who would be the first to use the bikes and who would train the others. He now knew how to drive a car, but an eighteen-wheeler, that was way out of his purview. Though if it was flying it might be easier.

"Okay. I'm going to go and call Sasha," Harry said, getting up and going to the door.

"Sasha?" his godfather asked, once again paying attention to his godson.

"My basilisk," Harry said, like it was obvious.

"Oh," was all the answer he got.

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Harry left the office and grabbed a broom from the tent they kept them in. He flew over the woods, making sure to check that there were no zombies about. There were some when he got to the end of the wards. He decided to leave them and just stay airborne. Making his way out of the wards, still on his broom, he called Dobby.

Dobby popped in and looked around, seeing Harry on his broom and zombies around, he popped himself up a tree. "What can I's be doing for yous?"

Thank goodness Dobby never called him the Great Harry Potter to his face anymore. "Can you get Sasha. Be careful, we don't know what it's like where she is."

"Dobby will bes careful," the elf said, popping away.

A few minutes later, the elf and snake appeared

"Sasha, it's good to see you. How are you? I have a question for you," he said in parseltongue, looking at his lovely snake. She was large, a good five feet round and thirty feet long.

"Why is it you have brought me here? Is there better hunting here?" she hissed her question, looking around like food would just pop up. Not that she was hungry right now, but it was always good to know where your next meal would come from. She had spent way to long hungry in the Chamber.

"I'm not sure if you've noticed, but most of the humans on the Earth are dead. I was just wondering if you would put them on your menu," the teen said, hovering around her head. He was immune to her stare, that and her eyes were shielded.

"What is this menu you speak of?" the snake asked, not sure of the word.

"What I mean is, if you would eat the zombies," Harry explained, hoping that she would eat them.

"I prefer my meals to be alive. Don't you have any more of those cows?" was the reply. Her voice dropping a bit in distaste.

"I'm sure there are plenty of cows around," he said, still flying around her head, "but we need them for the humans. Is there any way I can talk you into at least trying a zombie? Zombies are the things trying to bite you," he added, noting that the zombies weren't making any progress in that department.

"I will try one," she said, turning and biting the head off one. "Not as good as cows, but I can eat them." She finished off the one she started on.

"Good to know. How many can you eat?" the teen asked, knowing that snakes only ate once a week, or month in his snake's case.

"I can eat these here and a few more before I have to sleep," she said, making quick work of the four trying to eat her.

Harry flew down to land on her back. He then scratched her scales in the way she likes. "See if you can eat more. If you can't, try to kill them or petrify them. There are millions of them in the city," he added, pointing to the city. "If you can, don't kill any of the survivors, unless they try to kill you."

"I will do my very best." she said as she slithered away.

He flew off her back and went back to camp to let everybody know what Sasha said. As he was flying, he was thinking about what other magical creatures could possibly eat the dead. He wondered if Thestrals would be able to do that. They were supposed to be Omens of Death. It only made sense that they would be eating dead beings.

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As soon as Harry left, Sirius went to find Tonks. When he found her, he let her know that they were going to be visiting the farmer the next morning. After that he checked to make sure that everybody had had a fruitful day. He came to the group that had come from the CDC and asked them how their day was. He did notice that the willowy woman Lori did not have as much on her plate as everybody else.

"Could you tell your elves to give me more food?" she asked smugly.

"My elves are very fair and the only reason they would not have given you as much food is if you didn't work as hard as everybody else. I laid down the rules when you first got here. You knew what they were. If you don't work, you don't eat," he said, firmly.

"But I'm pregnant," was the indignant reply.

"I don't mean to come off as a hardass, but so what?" he said, still standing looking at her like she was saying something stupid.

"You don't mean that," Carol said softly. She had tried to give her portion to Lori, but when she did, it magically came back to her plate. They were very serious about working for your meal.

"Absolutely nobody here gets any special treatment unless they are disabled. You are not disabled. Even the disabled have to do as much work as they possibly can," came the firm explanation. They were already going over what the elderly and disabled in the nursing home could do to be productive members of the community.

"That's not fair," Lori stated, as if that would change anything. She was used to getting her way with Rick and Shane.

"Oh my god, would you just stop your bitching already?" Andrea said, tired of the woman's whining. "I've had to listen to it all day. You're getting what you earned, live with it, and shut the hell up." She threw her napkin on the table.

"Yes, please stop. You were given the rules. I don't understand why you can't understand them." Jacqui said quietly. "I, for one, don't want to you mess up what we have here. This is the first time I've felt safe since this whole thing started and I'm not going to let you take that away. I don't have a problem working for my food and necessities," she added, her voice laced in frustration, though still soft.

"Nobody else here seems to have a problem with the rules," Sirius said, looking at all the disgruntled people looking at Lori. "This is the way it's going to be; you want to eat, you have to work. Your being pregnant is not going to negate that."

"You would starve somebody for not working? You'd sit there and watch them starve to death," the pregnant woman accused, completely gobsmacked.

"No, everybody can have food enough to keep them alive," was the rebuttal, "but if they don't work then we will turn them out. And yes, I will turn you away, pregnant or not."

"That's barbaric," Carol and Lori said, in different tones.

"Welcome to Armageddon." And with that he walked away. He would think really hard on if what he said was true, but she didn't need to know that.

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Rachel showed up that evening. She had news that most of the Vatos wanted to stay at the nursing home and take care of the elders. She also said that some of the elders would be more than willing to babysit anybody under the age of four. Others would teach anybody over the age of five. Those eleven and older would have to learn from others, but the elderly where happy to teach the basics.

It was actually a good deal with everybody because those that couldn't work would be able to go to the nursing home during the day and those that could work would come to the campground. Everybody who was staying at the CDC could stay there at night. Maybe that Lori woman should go to the nursing home and teach the kids. That might stop her whining.

Sam went that very same day and put wards up around the nursing home. They would be the same wards that were at the CDC, and the campground. The same rules would apply.

Most of the Vatos would stay at the nursing home. Quite a few of them decided they were going to go out and cull the herd, so to speak.

Anyone with any ounce of medical knowledge decided that they were going to go to the nursing home and make that their first aid stop. There would be one healer at the campground, one healer at the CDC and the rest of them would be staying at the nursing home. So far, they didn't have any non-magical doctors, though there were a few nurses. They said they would look over Jenner's research but weren't hopeful on understanding it.

The Vatos would also pay their way by keeping the elderly and infirmed safe. They would patrol around the home, outside the wards. They were warned about Sasha and asked if they wanted flying motorbikes, to which they said they'd see what the motorcycles could do before they decided.

It worked out well for everybody.

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The next morning, Sirius and Tonks flew a few of the motorcycles down to the farmer that hadn't given them a hard time. The woods were clear of zombies, as they should be, but the animals were getting out of control. They were going to have to get the hunters down to this end of the wards. It seemed there were not enough natural predators.

They asked the kind farmer if he knew others that might need help at this time. He said he did.

They followed him on their bikes, taking potshots at any zombies they saw. Making sure to banish them when done. It took an hour to get to the nearest farm and it looked like that farm had been raided by zombies.

There were cows and horses in the stalls that looked half starved. There was a couple of pigs and few chickens that were scrounging about outside of their cages.

Sirius made note to get a large truck here to make sure that they picked up all these animals before they died. The farmer said he could probably take quite a few of them, but not all of them. And if all the other farms were like this, they were going to be in big trouble. He said it would be a kindness to kill the animals before letting the starve to death. As it was, they put out feed and water.

They spent the rest of the day going from farm to farm. There were only a few farmers further out that had not been attacked by zombies. They were all told what was going on, and what to look out for. They were informed how to kill a zombie, but warned that they usually traveled in packs, that could overwhelm them. The best they could do was hole up in the house.

Sirius told the farmers that he would send Sam or another warder down the next day or so to make sure that they had wards to keep the dead out of their houses. But if they really wanted to be safe, they would have to come to the campground until bigger wards could be put around. They would be able to come back each day and work their farms, but they had to sleep in the campground or the CDC where it would be safer.

Most of the farmers decided that this was a good idea, but a few of them said they would rather die on their farm. Sirius decided not to push the issue. It was up to them whether or not they wanted to come to safety or not. He wasn't going to force anybody. He did make note of those farms to come check on them every once a week or so. To see if they needed help or if the animals needed rescue.

They left the kind farmer and made it back to the campground and gave their report. This time everybody had done their work with no issue.

Sirius spent the next day charming more motorcycles. He talked to Dale and Daryl to see if they knew how to ride. Turned out Daryl and T-dog were the ones who knew how to ride. Though flying one was different, the basics were the same. T-dog said he had no problems teaching anyone who wanted to know.

Remus was charming cars to do the same. It would be a bit of work to get people to learn how to land them, but magic took care of quite a bit of that. So, not impossible. With the flying vehicles, hunting and scavenging would be easier. Well, not hunting unless they made the motorcycles silent, which with magic was possible.

For the next two weeks, that's what they did. They emptied out stores after going around them in the bikes and cars, shooting all the zombies. It made scavenging much easier. That and they could pick up survivors without landing, just holding out a hand and hoisting them up. There weren't many families, mostly single parents, or lone persons.

Everything was going great. That was until the weather turned bad.