I am surprised that they didn't loot the man's house for supplies now that he was a dead zed.  What was the hurry to get out?  Why wouldn't they rest up a day or two until Amanda regained her strength?

I don't see what caused them to rush once the threat was neutralized.

The reason they left was because thy didn't know how many Zs were in the area, where there is one Z there are a lot more.   Shooting the Z without suppressed weapons was a dinner bell for other Zs, as well as a beacon for other unsavory types.  Jeff  hasn't even even fought Zs, and might lock up at the critical moment. Amanda is in no condition to be fighting Zs. To keep them alive it was better to get them out of a potential kill zone before trying to loot anythong.  Staying and looting can lead to being surounded and overwhelmed.   Zs are best delt with in small numbers and without shooting.   Bashing them up and splatering blood everywhere, is a bad idea too.

Things have picked up again, so I am having a bit less time to write.  I am working on the next chapter and will hopefully get it up sometime this weekend.

  stop making me wait damn it  ><

i check this thread prob once a day to see if the next chapter has been posted haha

Every chapter has shown more talent. Keep it up sir.

I agree stop making us wait!!

Chapter 19

They crept up to the door noiselessly in the fresh snow.  One leader held up a finger to his covered face, indicating silence.  He then slowly turned the doorknob and swung the door open.  The wind blew a cloud of snow into the darkness of the room beyond.  The invaders swept inside and spread out exploring the building.

Subconsciously I felt that someone was watching me.  It was the same feeling that runs along your spine just before you open your eyes and a Drill Instructor is glairing back at you.  You feel the heat radiating off his brow, and his breath.  I slowly opened my eyes.  Squatting in front of me was a large man bundled in heavy clothing, which made him look gigantic.  Behind him stood five other bundled figures.  Their clothes were frozen stiff and crusted with snow.  I shifted my eyes back to the big man.  He lifted a gloved hand and removed the scarf covering his face, and grinned.  He hadn’t saved in weeks and was growing a scraggly beard.  A golden upper incisor tooth highlighted his brown rotten teeth.  I shifted and sat up to let my hand slide onto the butt of my glock under the paint tarp.  The big man lifted his hand and snapped his fingers.  The smallest of the bundled figures stepped forward while pulling off its gloves, and rummaged in a pocket for a cigarette and lighter.  I couldn’t tell if the person was a man or a woman.  Presently it paced the cigarette in the giants waiting fist and gave him a light.  The giant took a long drag on the cigarette and the tip glowed brightly.  Then he blew the cloud of smoke in my face.  Unfazed I stared him in the eyes as he smoked.  They showed a little amusement.  He finished the cigarette and put it out on the concrete floor.  Then he spoke.

“Six to three, looks like we have the majority.”  He looked at where Jeff and Amanda were sleeping.  “Ah the love birds are still sleeping, we mustn’t wake them.  That makes it six to one.”  

“No one asked you opinion.” I replied flatly.

He glared at me and I leveled my hidden glock right at his face.

His tone got ugly. “Don’t matter what you think, I call the shots now shithead.”

I was getting tired of this guy real fast.  I studied the group to see who I would kill after I shot the big man.  I decided on the two figures to the giant’s right, after that if I was still alive I would kill the ones that posed the most threat to me.  

We locked eyes and in a low stern tone I stated; “You don’t intimidate me, if you start a fight your minions will probably get me, but you will be the first to die.  Once your dead corps hits the floor I’ll kill the two to your left.”

We eyed each other like two bulls just before they charge, and I awaited his play.

He stood spoke.  “We don’t need to kill each other now, we can do that later.”

“You keep you crew away from my people or I will feed you all to the Zs.”

He laughed at my threat, “Mark my words you weak ass bitch, I will kill you with my bare hands.”

He walked out and his group followed him.  They stomped their way up the stairs and began to get comfortable.  I heard a movement to my right and Jeff sat up and pushed the tarp covering him away revealing the shotgun in his lap.

“They figured I was sleeping, I would have really surprised them.”

“You’re learning fast,” I said approvingly.

“The best fight is the one we can avoid.  We need to leave as soon as the weather changes.”


Upstairs the gang began to get comfortable.  The big man who’s name was Keegan set a chair behind one of the tables against the back wall.  Propping his feet on the table he watched as two of the men began to break into the vending machines.  The girl turned on a camping lantern and started heating some food over a can of stearno. He wasn’t particularly hungry but he wanted a smoke.  He snapped his fingers.
“Get me a fucking smoke skank.”  He bellowed.

When the the girl jumped to his side out of fear, and pulled out the packet of cigarettes he snatched the pack out of her hand.

“The lighter too.”

She took too long to fish it out of her pocket.  When she handed it to him he took it then slapped her in the face hard enough to knock her slim frame to the floor. Keegan slapped pack against his palm five times then opened it.  He hesitated for a moment deciding which cigarette to smoke first.  Selecting one, he lit it and took a long drag.  The smoke gave him a calming effect and he exhaled out his nose. He began to deliberate about the group downstairs.  The leader had seemed to be different than any other man he had ever seen before.  His gray eyes seemed to pierce whatever they observed.  Keegan flicked the ash off the tip of his smoke before taking another drag.  It was as if there was an all knowing presence behind those eyes, that had caused him to back down.  He was afraid of his people seeing him back down, because he used fear to control them.  He was power hungry and other people were just tools. He knew they hated him, if they saw him as week he would lose his power over them.  He decided that if any of his people showed insubordination, he’d kill them on the spot.   He finished the smoke and tossed the butt on the floor before lighting another cigarette. The man down stairs was dangerous because he was, Keegan paused for a moment, and took another drag on his smoke.  He couldn’t quite figure out why.  He seemed unafraid, even confidant, as if death couldn’t stop him.  How could a man be unafraid of death and confidant when six others had the drop on him?  He decided that he would have to kill the man, he would kill all three in the small group.  

That wasn't a chapter that was just a teaser to piss us off!! ;P. Good job love this story so far!!

Moar

Need more......

I've had a crazy week, so there might be some mistakes in my grammer.  I hope you enjoy the next chapter.

Chapter 20

Life is a journey, that we will never fully understand, but I believe that we were born to play an important role in God’s plan.  We are where we are for a reason.  I don’t know why or how it all works.  You are born, you grow up, and you get old and you die if you live long enough to get old.  In the end the only thing that matters is what legacy you leave behind.  Life is both extremely precious and terribly expendable.  The greatest of people are the ones who sacrifice themselves for others.  They are the ones who make a peaceful life possible.  Before things went to hell, that would have been the emergency service workers and volunteers, Service members and anyone who truly stepped up to serve his fellow man.  These people are often the outcasts; they are the first to die for peace and freedom.  Many will never enjoy the products of their labors. They understand how priceless life is because they are the expendable ones who make it possible for others.  They are the first to be called upon in emergencies, yet when the world doesn’t need them anymore; they are discarded like a used tampon.  In this new world it didn’t matter who you were before it only maters who you are now.  A knock on the door pulled me from my musing.  Jeff and I both instinctively pointed our weapons in that direction.  I stood up and walked to the door with my rifle at the high ready.  Come in I ordered.  There was a slight pause and then door opened and a young woman stood in front of me.  She had a massive black eye, several purple bruises on her face, and a fat busted lip. I lowered my rifle, but the safety was still off, ready for quick action if necessary.  

“What do you want.” I asked trying to discern the nature of why she was here.

“I think Keegan is planning to kill the three of you.”

“Why did you warn us?”

She looked at the floor for a moment.  “I don’t want to see anyone else murdered.”  She looked up.  “If he finds out that I warned you he will kill me on the spot.”

Suddenly there was a crash from upstairs and a long string of obscenities.  The plate glass window above us shattered, and a chair flew into the middle of the bay.  A shower of broken glass rained on the girl and she froze in terror.  I grabbed her arm and pulled her inside. The door at the top of the stairs was kicked open violently and the Keegan came storming out.  

“Stop right there, Stop, Stop!” I ordered.

I saw blinding orange flash, and felt like someone had hit me with the flat side of a shovel.  My left shoulder went numb.  My rifle instinctively began to jump in recoil, suddenly is stopped.  The big man was was at the bottom of the stairs and still rushing me.  I tossed my rifle aside and grabbed for my K-Bar. The big man landed on top of me with his knee to my gut, and hit my face with a monster punch.  All I could feel was a white flash of pain that seemed to go thought my body.  He grabbed my throat and began crush it with a viselike grip.  The whole world was exploding around me.  Blinding muzzle flashes lit the room brighter than noon.  Bullets sliced the air and burning hot brass bounced off the walls.  Yet it seemed to be silent, with just me and my attacker struggling for life. I lost my grip on the large knife and I felt for something desperately.  My hand latched on the glock.  I pressed it to the man’s chest, and began to pull the trigger.  As the gun jarred in my hand I could see anger and hate fill the man’s eyes. He wanted me to die first.  The glock’s slide locked back, and he began to beat my face again.  Then he jerked violently, crumpling on top of me.

“Fuck you.”  The words were scratchy and almost a whisper, his eyes went glossy and I watched the life go out of him.  His body rolled off of me and I was drug away from the door.  I felt a hot burning on my shoulder.  Gingerly I put my hand inside my shirt, it came out bloody.  I watched absently as the bright red fluid beaded and dripped off my pinky finger.  The next thing I knew someone ripped off cammo blouse and brown tee shirt. The young woman was pressing the shirt against my shoulder.

“What’s you name?” I asked.

“Erica”

“Are you ok?” Jeff asked.  He was shaking.

I pulled the shirt away from my shoulder.  There were seven small holes the size of a pin head.

“It must have been 7 ½  shot.”

“What’s that?” Amanda asked.  She was white as a sheet.  

Erica pressed the shirt back against my shoulder.

“It’s really small lead bbs that are used for bird hunting.” I explained.

“Josh can you get my rifle?” I asked pointing to where the M16 was.

“Shure”

Sitting up I inspected my rifle to find the problem.  The bolt was closed, so I clicked the safety on and dropped the mag. Then I pulled the bolt to the rear.  A brass case was in the chamber and hadn’t been extracted.  I worked the bolt several times with the same result.  I had seen this happen only once.  Someone had a fired blank and it got stuck in the chamber and couldn’t be extracted.  I was the only one who brought a cleaning kit and could poke the stuck case out.

My left shoulder burned as I used that arm to hold the weapon while I locked the bolt to the rear and got my cleaning kit out of my pack.  Assembling the cleaning rod, I punched the case out of the chamber.  Inspecting the case I found that the rim had been ripped away where the extractor had grabbed it.  This used to be a problem with M16s during Nam because the early m16 didn’t have a chrome plated chamber and barrel, but it is rare now.  You might shoot all your life and never see this malfunction, and you might get the luck of the draw and have it happen to you in a fight.  Oh well, better luck next time, I thought as I inserted a new mag and closed the bolt.

“You shouldn’t be using your left arm.” Erica commanded.

“It doesn’t hurt really bad to move it.”  I was playing the stubborn Marine again.

“She’s right.” Amanda joined in.

The next thing I knew the two women were duct taping my arm to my chest.  Jeff began to laugh.  

“Wait just a minute guys!” I protested.

“You are just a stupid, stupid, idiot sometimes. I am going to make sure you don’t use it.” Amanda said in a serious tone.

Amanda began to rummage through my pack for a clean shirt.  She pulled my green skives out of the bottom of my pack and began to gag.  They had sweat lines dried in them from my escape from Los Angeles, and were rank from being stuffed in the bottom of my pack for a couple weeks.  

“This is discussing!”

“I haven’t had the time to find a working laundry mat.” I replied grabbing them from her and stuffing them back in the pack.  Unzipping the large pouch on the back I pulled out my other brown tee shirt.  After the bleeding had stopped, Erica put some gauze over the holes in my shoulder and taped it in place before allowing me to pull my shirt on.

During the brief shoot out while I fought Keegan, Jeff had killed three of the attackers with the shotgun and the other two had fled into the night. Jeff inspected the bodies of the four dead men.  We discovered, that Keegan had shot me with a Taurus Judge.  One of the rounds from my rifle had stuck the frame and destroyed the revolver.  The other three men were armed with a heavily worn S&W 4006, a Ruger 10/22 with two Ruger BX25 mags taped together and an ancient 30-30.  Jeff pulled all the spare ammo off the bodies, then dragged them into a row.  Erica went upstairs, while I searched for my K-Bar, and returned it to it’s sheath on my belt.  I picked up my glock, reloaded it and holstered the pistol.   Erica came down a minute later carrying two back packs.  They had some warm cloths that Jeff and Amanda could put on, and a little food.  We ate a silent dinner.  Jeff was quiet, and couldn’t eat.  I walked to where he was sitting.
 
“You did the right thing, and you didn’t hesitate.”

He was silent for a moment.  “I was scared for Amanda.”  

“You did what you had to do, you kept Amanda safe.  Don’t beat yourself up.”

Jeff nodded.

Erica walked out, and opened the side door.  The wind had died down and it wasn’t snowing any more. She felt breathed the fresh air and let her anger drain away.  She liked the man called Josh, but didn’t feel sorry for setting him up to kill the man she hated. Keegan had been her father, and the things that he did, the way he treated people, horrified her.  He seemed to squeeze the life out of everything he set eyes on, but the fact that he was the only family member that she had left when things went to hell.  She got choked up and a tear ran down her face.  Her own father had raped and abused her.  There had been no one to stop him.  If he had been a stranger it wouldn’t have hurt as much, but he was her father and she hated him most for that.

Damn

This

wow.

Damn good chapter.

Good stuff,,look forward to more. Thanks.  BLG

holy f'in f

good story, keep it up! Any chance we somehow get a glimpse of the situation nation wide? via ham radio or a traveler with news?

Good read so far

Haven't read other peoples comments yet, so a few of mine...
Fix a few typos like "cloths". I doubt he I scavenging for rags, so I have to assume that he is trying to find clothing or clothes
You're probably running it through spellcheck, which isn't catching it because its a correct spelling in another context

Keep at it, though. I am enjoying the read so far

Speaking of mis-spellings, whats with the mis-spelled title?

I assume the basic combat load of a Marine is no different than us Army guys.
I can't see them having extra ammo to stash in a BOV while only being issued 90 rounds at the FEMA camp. Give them the basic load they'd get, it wont hurt the storyline and you already said the guy had extra mags anyways

"The place sunk "  Was it sinking or stinking? If so, it stunk

"a small plastic container of that I had made into a survival/first aid kit"- remove some words because you're garbled

"We hand almost made it to them "- typo

"scull" Unless there is a boat involved, wrong word in the context

"jip"..I think you mean "gyp"

'The thought made me smile a little"

"gonna"

This guy has his position over-run and he makes no attempt to contact his chain of command but simply bugs out?

"This reminded me. I need to get out of town before I got jumped by cali cops. Cops don’t take like military types walking around their streets with guns. ". Add something in there about that being Old World Normal-times thinking. The world has fallen apart to the point this guy has abandoned his post , zombies are roaming the countryside and the LEOs are gonna jump on him for being armed? I think not I'd jump on him for NOT being armed while out and about in that situation

"I feel disy and tingly all over". I think you mean she is dizzy

"After about 20 minutes we took a brake" They took a break

"rezorte"  Not a word

"serializing it with my zippo" Probably was trying to sterilize it

'brain"

"Put your face on the ground and lay on it"

"I saw Jeff, standing there staring at me"

"Ranger" and 'Explorer" as in a brand or model name should be capitalized when used in that context

"The man that was hilarious." He did what? Did he say that was hilarious?

"He serialized a spot on Amanda’s arm"..There is that word again. Is he giving her a serial number for a concentration camp?

"and he felt range come over him " I think he felt rage

I'll end there with spelling comments. Re-run the whole thing through spellcheck and post a corrected text

I appreciate your criticism.  Your right about my spellcheck not catching many of my mistakes.  I will fix those errors.  I am glad that you like the story.

It isn't criticism. It is feedback.
Yes, I enjoy the story

Moar

Great story,  I look forward to more chapters!

I am working on more, but have had to work this weekend.  I will post more when I can.

So is this one toast?

i hope not, im still checking everday for updates haha. OP definitely has me hooked.

It ISN'T TOAST YET!  Here is a little teaser.

Chapter 21

It had been four days since the gunfight with the gang of lowlifes.   The victors were running out of food and water.  Amanda felt so tired that she hurt.  A slow dull throb seemed to beat the back of her brain.  She was exhausted by the hard days, lack of food, the weakness of dehydration, and the new life inside her.  The water was almost gone and they had been rationing it to one bottle per person, each morning.  When the water first ran low they refilled it from the water dispenser upstairs, but that didn’t last long.  Then they had started melting snow.  It barely made enough water to replace the water they drank every day. Amanda watched Josh pace back and forth.  The gashes on the right side of his face were scabbed over.  Apparently the big man had hurt his ankle again in their fight because he limped with each step, but he wouldn’t stay put.  He seemed like a caged animal, ready destroy anything that stepped in his path.  Amanda wanted to sleep, but she couldn’t because she ached all over from fatigue.  She was worried about the baby. She felt it growing, and it used all her energy.  She hadn’t told Jeff yet and she worried how she would share the news with him.  The aching intensified and she leaned her head against the wall.  

Erica had been watching the way Amanda had been acting for the last several days.  She had a started collage to be a nurse, but dropped out when she lost her job.  From watching Amanda she was certain that Amanda was pregnant.  Not far enough along that it was visible, but far enough that she thought Amanda knew.  She thought of telling Jeff or Josh, but decided to let time disclose Amanda’s secret.  

I was getting upset, we couldn’t stay here, but the truck wouldn’t start, and hiking through the snow was a bad situation waiting to happen.  It would crank over, but it just didn’t want to start.  Maybe the truck’s diesel engine was just too cold.  I remembered reading stories of Alaskan bush pilots who draped a tarp over their planes engines and put a small stove under the tarp.  The stove was placed so it wouldn’t catch the tarp on fire, but let the warm air rise and heat the engine enough to start it.  I decided to give it a try.  Our home made stove was very crude, and was hard to get set up.  Once it was set up, we began to check on it every ten or fifteen minutes to ensure that it wouldn’t set the truck on fire.

Just before noon we heard a gun fire in the distance.  Boom, there was a pause, then, pop, pop, pop, Boom, Boom. Then a two bursts of automatic fire, and silence.

“Get everything ready to move.”  Jeff said in a stern tone.

The women packed quickly.  

Jeff and I tried starting the truck again.  It coughed on the first couple tries.  Then roughly started up.  We let the engine run for fifteen minutes before getting ready to move out.

Erica approached me and asked, “can I have the pistol and the cowboy rifle.”

I glanced at Jeff, “Erica have you ever shot a gun before?”  

“I shot a cowboy gun a couple times, but I have seen them used a lot.”  

I didn’t know this girl, but an extra shooter wouldn’t hurt.

“Do you know the safety rules for handling a gun.”

“Uh,” she thought for a moment, “Don’t point them at people you don’t want to kill.”

“Ok, that is a good start.  Treat every gun as if it were loaded, Don’t point your weapon at anything you don’t want to destroy, keep your safety on until you are ready to fire, keep your finger off the trigger until you are ready to fire, and don’t fire at Zs unless it is an absolute emergency, the noise attracts them.”

“Thanks, Josh.”

Erica picked up the pistol, slipped a magazine into the magwell until clicked, chambered a round and performed a chamber check, then lowered the hammer on the large double action auto and clicked the safety on before sticking it into the back of her waistband.  Next she stuck the two extra mags for the pistol in her pocket, then inspected the 30-30.  By the way she handled the weapons, I could tell that she obviously hadn’t told me the truth about only shooting “a couple times”.  I didn’t know why she wasn’t telling me, and decided to keep a close eye on her.

TO BE CONTINUED

well shootist,  last chapter seems a bit rushed.

but im still looking forward to more,

Great story so far. Keep it up!

I don't know why I started this. I'm just going to get too involved with it & then like "fast45"'s "darkest part of day" series, it'll end on a cliffhanger never to be resolved.

Status update:

I have some free time this weekend, and will be able to work on the stor some more.

cant wait shootist, ill be looking forward to it

And we're waiting!!

And waiting.....

And waiting!

Here is the next part. Sorry about the long wait.

Josh and Erica climbed into the truck bed while Jeff helped his wife into the cab.  They had decided to venture into the dangerous urban ghost towns to find supplies.  Amanda slid to the middle of the bench seat, and Jeff handed her their bags.  She took them one at a time and put them on the floor board to the right of her feet.  Jeff couldn’t help but notice that she was getting considerably weaker the last couple weeks.  Amanda had always been a slim girl weighing about 116 pounds as long as he had known her, but now his wife looked gaunt.  Her cheek bones were showing, and she had large circles under her eyes.  He needed to find some vitamins and food for her.  He climbed in the driver’s seat and handed Amanda the shotgun.  She took the weapon and gazed at if for a moment.  Jeff slid his arm around her.

“Everything is going to be ok babe,” he said kissing her.   He tried to sound confident so he would believe his own words, but ever since he had killed those men, he wasn’t sure of anything anymore.

She smiled wearily and squeezed his leg. “I wish I could believe that.”

“Me too Love.” He replied quietly.

When everyone was situated, Jeff pushed in the clutch with his foot and shifted the truck into first gear, and slowly let off the clutch while simultaneously pressing the gas pedal.  There was a moment’s hesitation before the the all-terrain tires began to spin.  Jeff let off the accelerator, and the tires grabbed.    He slowly began to break a path through the two feet of powdery snow on the ground.  Josh had said that one of the first things they needed to find were chains.  The truck was having a rough time pushing a path through the larger drifts that were about two and a half feet.  Jeff had to be careful not to get the truck stuck.  As they headed into town, they began to look for an auto parts store.  Jeff maneuvered through stalled cars that served as reminders of the tragic circumstances that had turned their world upside down.  Suddenly at a cross street they came across tire tracks.  Josh banged on the top of the cab, when they were about thirty yards away and jumped up to his knees in the snow.  His left sleeve swung limply at his side as he trudged through the snow.

I got an instant cold feeling when I saw the tracks ahead of us.  When we got closer to them, I signaled for Jeff to stop, and told Erica to stay in the truck.  Jumping into the snow, I began to slog my way to the tracks.  When I got to them could tell that they were made by something with really big tires, maybe some sort of heavy equipment or a seven ton truck.  This could be bad or good depending how you looked at it.  It meant that there were people nearby, but they could have bad intentions like most of the last ones we ran into.  The tracks headed roughly from east to west. If we travelled on the path, it would be much easier to drive, but someone might be watching, because it was the easiest path of travel.  I decided that the speed of travel outweighed the risks.  I waved to Jeff to drive up and waited for him to plow through the snow. I motioned to him to head west before jumping back in the bed.  It was tough to climb over the tailgate, because my M16 kept sliding across my chest.  If I had both hands, I could have pulled it out of the way with my right hand and used the left to climb aboard.   Jeff was able to drive much faster now.  Everything was so still, and desolate.  Tattered curtains swayed lazily in the smashed windows of abandoned homes.  Their blood stained doors wide open allowing the snow blow inside. I spotted a few Zs watching us pass from inside the houses. After about a half hour of winding through residential neighborhoods and small stores I was getting a bit disappointed.  At each of the stores that the path led past, there were signs that a group of about 10 or 15 people had ransacked them.  Most of the ones that had been hit were clothing, and grocery stores, but a few had been car repair shops.  Bodies of Zs lay in the snow near the looted buildings.  Their coagulated black blood contrasted against the pure white snow.   Whoever this group was, they had big trucks and lots of man power.  If we got into an altercation with them, we wouldn’t stand a chance.  I began to wonder if it had been a bad idea to follow in the wake of this group.  Despite the danger of running into survivors, I knew that we couldn’t stay isolated forever.  We needed information.  Information about the living people in the area, the threats they posed, and where the Zs were the most dangerous.  It would also be nice to learn some large picture information.  How was the Z infestation in the rest of the country, and what was the Government doing, had it totally disintegrated, or were there cronies controlling any areas?  

Suddenly out of no ware a blue and white snowmobile came ripping out from the buildings in front of us.  Jeff slammed on the brakes, the tires lost traction and the truck began to turn sideways as it slid forward. The rider of the snow machine gunned his throttle spraying us with snow as he got out of the way.  He was dressed in white and had a pump shotgun slung across his back.  I clicked the safety off and rested the front hand guard of my M16 on the truck cab’s roof as I pointed the rifle at him.  The young man waved his hands over his head then pulled down a white mask that covered his face.  

“Don’t shoot, I’m friendly.” He yelled

“Erica, watch the other side of the truck incase this is a trap.” I said while keeping the tip of the stadia line of my ACOG on the crazy snowmobiler’s chest. I could hear the rack of the Jeff’s shotgun from inside the cab of
the truck.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing,” I yelled at the man.

“We’ve been watching you, and you are about to drive into a trap, we had to warn you.”

“We could be in a trap, and you could be the bait.” I fired back at him.

“Well if you want to go and get everyone in their killed, go ahead!”

“How do we go around.” I asked.

“You can’t go around in vehicles, you have to use snowmobiles.  We have a place where you can rest and figure out what to do next.”

“Where is this place.”

“This isn’t the safest place to chat. If you follow me back up the road a little ways I’ll get the Boss on the radio and he’ll come talk to you.”

“He looks harmless enough, what do you think?” Jeff asked me from inside the cab.

“Alright you lead the way, but if you try anything crazy,” The man cut me off, “I understand your suspicion, but we don’t mean you any harm.”

Without another word, he started his machine and pulled his mask up to cover his face.  Jeff shifted into 1st gear and slowly performed what seemed like a 60 point turn. Then he headed back up the road following the snowmobile.  After driving back up the road about a half mile, we were met by two more people on a green snowmobile.  The taller one wore a pair of old tri color fatigues and a tactical vest over a navy blue jacket, and a black beanie.  He had a large Sig in a drop leg holster and a suppressed M4 with and EOTec hung against his chest by a single point sling.  The other wore a pair of black insulated Carhartt coveralls and carried an SKS with a 30 round magazine.  Jeff cut the engine and we all climbed out of the truck.  The tall man stepped forward.

“I’m Matt Dalton and this is Andy,” he gestured toward the man with the SKS. “Evel Knievel here is Mark.”

Jeff stepped forward and shook Matt’s hand. “Nice to meet you Matt, I’m Jeff, and this is, my wife Amanda,” he said while slipping a hand around her waist. “And those two are Josh, and Erica.” With the introductions finished Jeff began to ask about what was going on.

“Your man Mark told us that we were about to drive into a trap?”

“Um Yes.” Matt replied.  “I used to be a police officer here in Fernley, but once the walkers started taking over the country we had a couple thousand refugees stranded here.  Some of them were infected and everything went to hell in a hand basket.  Pardon my French ladies. The rest of the refugees rioted and attacked the City Council building and the Department. We couldn’t control them and had to evacuate. Over the next week most of them became walkers, but about eighty still control the town’s government buildings.  We have been getting into two or three gunfights a week.  A couple weeks ago they ambushed a small army convoy on the highway and got a couple of those big trucks. They have a roadblock set up that is covered by a .50 caliber machinegun.  If you drive into it, you won’t get out.  

“Mark said you have been watching us.” Josh asked.

“Yes we have scouts watching those thugs, they spotted you driving around like it was a Sunday morning.  We had to stop you from driving right into that machinegun and getting yourself killed.”

“Mark said that you had a place we could stay for a little while?” Amanda asked.

Matt shot a hard glance at the young man before answering Amanda’s question. “Since you don’t look like bandits, and Mark likes to tell all our secrets I might as well invite you back, but I will have to have our medic look you over to make sure you’re not infected.  We can’t take you in for long, but I’m sure we can arrange a deal for you to stay for a little while.”

“Thank you so much.” Amanda replied.

“Now wait a minute,” Jeff said.  “Matt, will you please give me a minute to discuss this with my people before we make a decision.”

“Certainly”

The small group walked about twenty feet away.  

“Jeff please, we are all beat and Josh needs a doctor,” Amanda begged.  

“I don’t know Babe, they seem to have a gang war going on, I don’t know how safe it will be to stay with them.”  

Josh jumped in the conversation. “I don’t want to get involved in their war either, but they are actively watching for those bandits, and Amanda’s right. We aren’t in very good shape to be out on our own.”

Jeff turned to ask Erica what she thought, but she was already walking back to Matt’s group. They were all taken back as she spoke.

“Matt, these people rescued me from the raiding party that your men got into a shootout with 5 days ago.  Your men killed 3 of those bastards, and these people killed 4 more saving me.  Take them in and I tell you all the information I know so you can kill all of those murdering shit bags.”  

Welcome back.

sweet!

Ahhh.  Much better now...  Thanks!  

very nice

Keep it coming.

motion seconded.

I'm liking it!  Please keep it coming!

TriumphRider

I am realy buisy with work,  I will try to write and post more when I get a chance.  The story is not dead yet.

Enjoying this one thusfar!  

Keep it alive!

Don't want this one to be archived yet.

Guess this is another one that doesn't get finished....I see a trend with these.

I'm guessing this one is dead.....

really got into this one too, atleast humanities will isnt dead yet either. been watching this one that one and the plague