Chapter seven: Contact
All they seemed to do for the following six days was to live on the road. They never stopped in a city, they stayed away from them as much as possible. Steve's plan seemed to be to drive as much as possible and risk as little as possible, which was a good plan. They had food, water and when they needed they stopped at gas stations outside settlements like the one they had found Alex in. They didn't find anything in any of them, alive or undead, and never stayed long enough to find out.
Alec drove their car most of the time and shifted with Alex rather than with Mark. It wasn't that Mark couldn't drive, more that he didn't like to for some unknown reason. The group had to stick to the smaller roads because the highways were clogged with the cars of the people that had tried to escape the cities that morning that seemed to have been so long ago. But someone must have been infected, the cars only stood there while the once normal and once frightened people now walked around searching for warm flesh.
During the time they stopped, in the mornings and the evenings, Alec and Mark became pretty good friends with everyone else. Of course they knew Alex best, he was with them in the pickup all day. Brandon and Ryan turned out to be a couple of slackers going as easy as they could through life, until the Change as people started to refer to the day when the dead rose. Other names were the Rising, D-day and a couple of others. Terry was as the two boys had figured an ex gang member who was trying to change his destructive way of life when the apocalypse came in the way. But Marks best friend in the group, besides Alec of course, came to be Jessica. They talked about everything together. Movies they liked and didn't like, music, what subjects they absolutely didn't miss and so on. Even if the world had changed for the worse life was pretty good after all.
In the three days they had been driving around searching for others they only had to fight once. And that time the creature stood in the middle of the road and Steve was able to hit it with the car. Then he walked out and finished it with a rock. The only loss in that battle was a dent on Steve's former flawless grill.
Mark thought back to all of that while he sat besides Alec who was driving the pickup. This day was a little cloudy and he wouldn't be surprised if it rained later on. Alex was asleep for the moment, that seemed to be half of what he did. He mostly just slept, ate and talked. The two friends didn't talk, they stayed quiet and let the fatman sleep. But Alec had to slam the brakes. Mark was thrown forward and would have hit the dashboard if he hadn't used the seatbelt. Alex didn't use a seatbelt and that earned him some nosebleed and pain. The two cars in front of him had stopped. They three survivors got out and walked up to Steve and the others. Mark had to force himself not to look at Jessica, there were more important things going on.
"There's two humvees over there. Looks like the national guard." Steve said and pointed. About two hundred meters in front of Steve's car there where a roadblock, two humvees and some barbed wire. Mark didn't see any soldiers though.
"It looks abandoned." He thought out loud.
"You think we should check it out?" Brandon asked. "We talked about the need for a radio yesterday. Our chances of finding others are a lot better with a radio and if there's somewhere they are sure to have a radio it's in one of those cars."
"But why is it abandoned?" Carl asked no one in particular, probably himself. He got along a little better with everyone now, especially with Brandon and Ryan. Or at least better than with Alec and Mark. The funny thing however was that Brandon and Ryan thought the same about Carl as Mark and Alec did, that he was the weak link in the group and a bully with a stick up his ass. And as everyone know the chain is only as strong as it weakest link.
"Because they're dead." Terry said. "I'm only saying what everyone else is thinking." He added when everyone looked at him.
"We can take them, there can't be to many of them down there if there's any of them. We need a radio." Alec said.
"But still there might be infected in the area, stay on guard." Steve told the group and scanned the surroundings. They were in a forest and no one knew how many of the creatures that might lurk in the shadows.
"If we're going there everyone goes at the same time, it's safest that way." Mark said and the others nodded.
"Come on then." Ryan said and started to walk. The others followed.
"Watch your six." Steve told everyone.
They walked two by two. First Steve and Carl, then Mark and Alec checking the flanks followed by Terry and Jessica. The last pair wasn't a pair, it was the three others checking everyone's six.
Nothing happened to the crowd as they neared the vehicles. No one said a word and tried to sound as little as possible, only the steps on the asphalt and their breath sounded, other than that it was completely silent. In the movies someone would say something like 'It's quiet, to quiet' and then something would happen, but in reality nothing happened. When the got within twenty meters of the blockade they all smelt a disgusting odour. This time no one threw up, but it was damn close that more than one of them did. It wasn't blood, vomit, shit or decomposing flesh, it was something else. It almost smelt as burnt hair, but only almost. Only Steve knew what it really was.
"What the hell is that smell?" Alec mumbled.
"Burnt flesh." Steve said and trudged on, holding his shotgun even tighter. He had been young last time, and that time it had been caused by the world's worst weapon next to nukes, napalm.
The group spread out when they reached the cars. Everyone hunched and prepared for another fight, but nothing happened. Mark was first to see where the smell came from. A smoking pile behind the cars. When he looked closer he saw what was in the pile. Bodies. There was at least twenty corpses lying there. And the smell had grown horrendous now, it was a miracle that Mark didn't throw up. Alec, Jessica, Brandon and Steve came up behind him. They only stood and looked at the pile of dead people. The charred remains was gruesome, their limbs twisted in unnatural angles. No one said anything until Alex shouted from one of the humvees.
"There's a radio here. And a note!" he shouted. That made them snap back to reality and go see what he meant with note.
When they got to Alex and Carl who stood outside on of the cars looking at a piece of paper Terry had joined up with them. He hadn't found anything, good or bad. The note said following
We're leaving this blockade now, we have done our duty. We heard on the radio that there's a group of survivors holed up outside some town called Charelstown or something. We're going there and if you are smart you are going there to. Some of us died at the very place you are standing (we burned them with the others so you won't have to worry about them) so we only needed one humvee. We stripped the others though and you wont find anything useful in them except for this radio and note. Last thing we heard from the military channels was that the white house's barricades are breached and the staff KIA. There are no government. This thing is world-wide. We also heard about rampaging gangs in the area, so be careful. I will hopefully see you in Charelstown. You can find us on channel 13.
-Skip
Alex read it out loud and everyone's hope got a little burst as they heard about the other survivors. They returned to their cars, looked up Charelstown in a road atlas they had snatched in a gas station and decided the smartest rout. They didn't dare to enter any bigger cities, no cities at all actually. Then they loaded up the radio in Steve's car, he and Carl was the only ones capable of using the advanced military thing. They drove for the rest of the day and almost made it halfway to Charelstown. In the evening they stopped in the middle of the road to rest, no need to drive of the road since there were no other cars coming. Out there in the middle of nowhere no ghouls hunted. At least they didn't attack. As they settled down the 'groups' that had formed sat down to eat a decent meal. They ate, talked and checked their supplied and the first watch was on. The first watch got to Mark and, since the drew shortest straw, Jessica. Since the group stayed away from the 'hot' areas (aka towns) watch simply meant to talk and play cards for about three others and then go kick up someone else and go to bed on the back of the pickup besides Alec. The fatman (Alex) slept inside the pickup. It felt a little gay to sleep besides his best friend, but it was better than the ground. But this night Alec had the next watch with Alex, which meant that he didn't have to sleep huddled to a guy, which was a good thing. But now there was the watch.
Since he had got the shotgun he had it slung over his shoulder all the time, unless he slept or washed up. Hygiene wasn't the best right now, but at least he felt partially clean. And when he slept or washed up he had it within arms reach. Everyone kept their guns close twenty four seven now. He still smelt of the burned bodies, or maybe it was in his mind. The others went to bed, some in their cars and some in a tent in the middle of the road, the camping equipment coming in handy. Soon everyone except for the guards slept deep, trusting the two watchers. The two of them sat on the ground and were in the middle of a game of poker, which wasn't all that exiting when only two of them playing. Mark was the superior player, back in school it practically was all he did. But sitting there talking to each other, enjoying some beer they had picked up at a raid was pretty fun. Steve didn't really care about the kids drinking beer, he believed that they knew what they could drink and could not drink and that they wouldn't drink to much, and no one did. In a situation were ones life is depending on being alert one came to not drink himself shitfaced. All in all the kids were treated as adults, they were allowed to have guns, to drink beer and have a say in anything someone suggested. The stuff they were drinking right now was some kind of Mexican beer that actually tasted pretty good. The air was colder now and Mark wore a leather jacket he had found in a staff room in a gas station they had raided. It was a little big, but it was nice and he hoped that if he got into the situation, the ghouls would have a hard time chewing through it. And as a third positive thing, it looked cool.
"Actually this is starting to get boring." Mark said. "I've won four times in a row now."
"Yeah." Jessica said and drank some beer. "You didn't pay much attention in school did you? I got a feeling of that all you did was to play poker with equal slackers. Guess it started in what, third grade?"
"Almost right. I didn't do much at all in school, and I played poker. Only that it wasn't with equal slackers, I'm one of a kind." He said. Jessica smiled.
"Sure." She said with a smile and they finished the game of poker. Mark won once again. Then Mark remembered something. He returned to the pickup where both Alec and Alex were sleeping and snoring. He looked through his bag of things, mostly clothes he had stolen at the few lonely houses they had stopped at, until he found what he searched for. When he returned to Jessica he held a box of something in his right hand. She didn't see what it was in the darkness but she saw the big smirk on Marks face. As he sat down she saw what was in the box. Cigars.
"Where did you find those?" She asked as she saw that they were Cuban.
"In the same house as the winchester and your gun." Mark answered, picked up a cigar for himself and one for Jessica. She took one and held it as if she didn't know what to do with it.
"You gonna smoke that?" He asked and lit his own.
"Yeah, it's just that I've never smoked anything else than a cigarette before." She said and let Mark light her with his zippo lighter. He had found the lighter in a gas station the day before and figured that it would come in handy, and the yellow smiley on the lighter was a little relaxing, as if some things had remained normal.
"It's not hard, just do as you've seen people do in the movies." Mark said.
"What are we celebrating?" She asked and tried to smoke a cigar as in the movies, she almost succeeded.
"Celebrating?" Mark asked.
"With the cigars I mean. Most time people smoke cigars they celebrate something." She said.
"Then I guess we're celebrating our survival so far. Unless it's someone's birthday soon. Or maybe to everyone that died." He said.
"Celebrating our survival is good enough." She said. Mark nodded
The two of them sat silent and tried to hone their cigar smoking skills as the smell of charred bodies changed into the thick smell of cigars.
"What do you think will happen when we get to Charelstown?" Mark asked after a while. He wasn't sure he wanted to stay there when they reached. But if everyone else did so would he. Life on the road was pretty good right now and he had never been a people person.
"I don't know, I think Steve want's to stay, but I don't. I think it's more dangerous to stay outside a town than to live on the road like we do right now. What do you think?" She said.
"Something like that." He answered. "I think these days have been pretty good. As long as we stay away from the cities everything is okay. I wonder how many people they gathered in Charelstown."
"Maybe ten, maybe a hundred. Since we haven't heard anything from the radio, not a single word they might be dead. Who knows." Jessica said.
"Kinda pessimistic, but still possible." Mark said. "If someone told you last week that in a week you would have been part of a rag tag group of nomads running from zombies in a lawless world where the dead walk, would you laugh at him or walk away?" He asked
"I would have thought that he was a nut or something and walked away before he started to say that I was the mother of a rebel leader in the future or something." She said and smiled.
"Like in Terminator." She nodded. "That's one hell of a movie you know. At least the best Governor Arnie ever done."
"I haven't seen it in a couple of years, but last time I saw it I was kinda scared. I thought the idea of being hunted by a mindless robot without remorse or sympathy was kinda scary."
"I mostly like the movie since it had cool action scenes." Mark answered. "Actually we are hunted by mindless zombies without remorse or sympathy right now. Almost the same thing except for the guns and the MC."
"Actually I would have laughed at someone who told me that I would be sitting besides a boy I met a couple of days ago talking to him like if he was my best friend. It's weird you know. It feels as if I can talk to you about anything and you would understand. You're a good listener."
Mark was touched by the compliment but joked it away.
"Not in school I wasn't. Never listened to anyone back there. At least not the teachers." He said and both of them laughed a little. They were quiet for a while before Jessica asked Mark another serious question.
"Do you think about your family a lot?" She asked.
"No, not really. I try to think about it as little as possible and so far I'd say that I'm doing pretty good. I think more about all my friends." He answered. "Liked them more than my parents."
"You did? Why?" She asked.
"First of they were complete losers. Dad hadn't got a job since I was three, then he divorced with mom and simply left and didn't say where when I was twelve. That's what I didn't like about him as you might understand. He was a fuckup who didn't care about his own kid and wife. Not that I would have cared about a wife like my mom. As soon as he left she simply lost the spirit to keep on. It wasn't that she broke her heart when dad left, more that she felt insulted by it. She started drinking and stopped working. She wasn't nice when she was drunk, not at all. When I was small enough to not hit back she actually hit me a couple of times. But as you see I grew and soon enough she realised that a fat fuck like her was risking a lot trying to hit someone like me. Not that I ever hit her back or something. More like that she knew that I would if she tried anything. I started to spend more time with my best friends than at home and soon Alec's and Stan's homes felt more like home than the place that I lived at. That's why it feels a lot worse to know that Stan is dead than my mother."
"Wow, a little surprising. Didn't think you grew up like that. Must have been hard." She said.
"I got pretty good at hiding it for my friends. Never talked to anyone about it. What the fuck would people think about me if they knew that my fucking mom hit me when she was drunk, and that she was drunk more often than sober. Never talked to anyone about it, not even Alec." He said. "It feels kinda weird to talk about it, but good. I've known you for about a week and I already talk about the things I didn't tell Alec who I've known since kindergarten." He said.
"Maybe that's why you talk about it with me, since you don't know me to well." Jessica said. "Guess I would have done the same thing. You're a nice guy Mark, I like you." She smiled at him. He smiled back.
"Thanks." He said. "I like you to, never thought I would talk about this shit with a girl." He joked.
The conversation was interrupted by the radio, or rather, by a man talking in the radio.
"Anyone there? There's twelve of us barricaded in the city hall. If you can get us out of here I beg you to do so. There are kids here and we don't have any food left. I repeat..." The voice told anyone who listened.
When he had finished the sentence Mark threw his cigar into the darkness besides the road and got up on his feet. First Steve thought they were under attack, but when Mark told him what had happened he got up and ran to the radio. The man still repeated the information like a mantra. Steve got into the car as the others gathered around it, Jessica had woken the others while Mark told Steve.
"We hear you." Steve said into the radio.
"What! Where are you? Are you the army?" The voice said with an eager tone. "Are you in town?"
"I'm afraid we're not the army or in town, but we'll try to do our best to get you out of there. What town are you in? " Steve told the man.
"We're in Harrisburg, if you got a road map you can find it. How many are you, there's more than a thousand of the infected outside." As soon as the man said Harrisburg Carl started to search for it in the roadmap they had in the car. It wasn't to far from their current place, only fifty miles actually.
"I'm afraid that we're not to many, only nine actually. But I'm sure we can think of something. My name is Steve by the way." Steve said.
"Please get us out of here, I'm Roy." Roy said over the radio.
"We'll do so. You'll be out of there before tomorrow night." Steve said. "We'll get right to it."
"Okay, please hurry." Roy said.
This made everyone hurry into their cars. Since they had to stay away from the big roads the fifty miles took them two hours. The town of Harrisburg wasn't a big town. It was one of those towns that one only drove past or maybe stopped at the gas station while on way to something else. They stopped outside the town and tried to make up a plan of how to do this and maybe rest a while.
"I think the best way should be to use one of the cars as a decoy. Someone should drive past the horde and get their attention and then lead them away from the city hall. It will be easy to drive away from them, they can't get to you. Who wants to be decoy?" Steve asked the group with a sarcastic smile.
"We can do that, if you guys are game." Brandon said and looked at Ryan and Terry who both gave him a 'what the hell' look and nodded. "As far as I figure it won't be so dangerous. It's you guys who are going to have it hard. First you need to find a way to get transportation, we don't have room for all those people in the cars we've got now."
"Then you guys can be decoy while we get in and grab the others." Steve said. "Is that okay with everyone?" he asked. The others nodded.
"But where the hell are we going to get cars for all those people?" Carl asked.
"We need a bus or a truck. But where can we get a bus?" Steve said.
"At a school bus maybe? It would be big enough for those people." Brandon said. "And I'll bet there's one with the keys in it at the school."
"You got a point there. So if you guys go and act decoy to get the horde away from the city hall while we go get the school bus and get the people at city hall we meet up back here and go to Charelstown. Lead them out of town and then get away from them. It's not a to complicated plan but we can make it and that's all that matters." Steve said.
"Guess that's what we're doing." Mark said. "Let's get some rest before all of this is going down."
"We'll start at dawn." Steve said and everyone except for Alex and Alec went to sleep.
Mark didn't get to much sleep. Maybe this would be the end of the group, maybe this would be an addition. It was dangerous and he didn't really know if he liked the idea of entering a town even if it was to rescue others that surely would die without their help. It was cold and heartless, but in this new world he had to be cold if he was going to live. But he wasn't the leader of the group and the others seemed to have decided to go for it. He hoped he was going to make it.