The Other Side of the Apocalypse

[WildWest]

Day 123

I sent Will and Jared out on an errand for the morning. Using their scopes, binoculars, a map, and a notebook, they are to note the location and range of any second floor or higher perch pirates could use to attack our walls or barricades. They are to make sure they identify the type of building so we can determine if we should shoot it out or mark it for salvage and then shoot it out. I’m expecting them to take all day for this duty. I asked them to wrap up by rolling out to the river side and take out any upper story windows on the other side of the river.

I sent Kevin, Evelyn, and Mark to pick up the trailers from ConWay and line them up in the neighborhood. I want plenty of supplies nearby for when winter starts. We’ll do a few more days of gathering and then bring them inside the outer wall.

I grabbed Lauren, Eduard, and Rachael to help with the morning runs. Today we are loading trailers at the food distributorship. The last time I was there we grabbed the trailer from the lot, but there were enough dry goods inside the warehouse to fill at least four more trailers, probably more.

We were at the warehouse by eight in the morning with three empty trailers and forklifts. We cleared the lot and warehouse by nine and had the first trailer loaded before ten. After that, it took forty-five minutes to load the next trailer with pallets of dried foods. I seriously underestimated the amount of food in this warehouse. This was going to take most of the day and we’d probably have eight to ten trailers by the time we were done. We had plenty of spare trailers, but not so much time.

I called back to Samaritan Station and cancelled training for the afternoon. Work on the wall defenses would continue through the day. This was actually a really good thing. Fabian was making excellent progress on expanding the tunnel, installing hatches, and installing the tunnel between the outer and inner walls. He needed sandbags now. Richard took three of the kids to the sandbagging yard to get some pallets ready to move. Richard found a cargo container filled with empty nylon bags. Tens of thousands, if not a hundred thousand nylon bags were in that container that could be filled. We were definitely in business with the wall.

We finished moving the last trailer of food into the neighborhood around three in the afternoon. It was only shortly after that when Will and Jared started to take out the windows across the river. I had everyone outside the barricades call it a day since more zeds would be coming into the area, drawn by the sound of .308 rounds being fired along the river.

We came in quickly, but nobody got a chance to rest. I kept three drivers and two guards with me to open the outer wall and bring in the trailers. The rest I sent with Richard to begin sandbagging the first bunker. We pulled away two containers of the outer wall with the crane and parked the trailers tightly together. This took us till nearly sundown and then we closed the outer wall for good.

The kids working for Richard were worked just as hard. They used the large forklift to place three pallets of sandbags on top of the container. The kids then started to stack the bags under Fabian’s direction. He made them slow down and re-stack them on occasion, just to make sure there weren’t any weak spots due to sloppy work.

The bunker was six feet high on top of the southeast corner of the outer wall. The first three feet on all sides were three bags deep. Above that, the walls were two bags deep. One foot wide and six inch high slits were left at the three foot level on each wall. Spare sandbags were left in the bunker so that they could be stuffed two-deep into each slit to protect against incoming fire. The ceiling used heavy planks from the construction supply yard to support sandbags two-thick over the entire roof. This one bunker took about a thousand sandbags in all. Boy were those kids worn out by the end of the day.

[WildWest]

Day 123

Part 2

I talked with Fabian tonight about some changes to three of the older dump trucks. I like the heavy front bumper on them for smashing the zeds, but I need extra plating installed on the lead truck so it can push vehicles out of the way more efficiently. Fabian drew up a couple design options and we picked one that would work well on smaller vehicles but be less likely to get snagged if I had to try clearing a tangled wreck.

We then went over how to build cages around the passenger compartments of the trucks. They needed to resist being peeled away by the sometimes super-human strength of a runner, but not destroy our visibility on the road. We didn’t have many good ideas on how to do this, so we asked Vicky to give us a hand. She had a great idea of how to secure cyclone fencing to the outside of the cab, but still allow for use of one or both doors. It was a winner of an idea.

Finally, we talked about how we needed to configure the convoy and what we needed to bring with us to make it a success. We were bringing back more than just a small group of survivors. This run was needed if we were going to really survive as a group. We needed to have a doctor of some kind in our community. Without one, we may just survive the zombies only to die off due to illness and injury.

We had one more problem for long term survival that could only be solved by this trip. How do we survive long term if we don’t have our own farm animals?

[WildWest]

Day 123

Part 3

Kelsey’s voice was upbeat but tired, “How are you doing tonight Doc?”

“Pretty good. What’s your good news?”

“Well, it looks like we’ll be able to try a taxi service sometime soon. Maybe as early as next weekend.”

“That is good news. We don’t have much packing that needs to be done, so I guess we’re on your schedule.”

“Good,” replied Kelsey, “then you won’t mind filling us in on your address so we can plan the route. We can talk over the next few days about other details like how we’ll get you out of the firehouse and if there is anything worth the risk of salvage out in your area.”

“That sounds alright to me. Just take the 60 into Moreno Valley and exit on Moreno Beach. We’re about a mile and a half down the road, on the left.”

“That sounds pretty easy to me. We should be there in about forty minutes. We can pick up burgers and a milkshake on the way back.” Kelsey said, making herself chuckle.

“That’s fine by me little girl. Are you buying?”

“No, I haven’t gotten my allowance yet. I guess we’ll have to wait till next week.”

“Too bad, I was getting hungry.”

[krislnd]

Brilliant story

[Bearcat]

So with all these new characters and developments, is the old ending disregarded?

[WildWest]

So with all these new characters and developments, is the old ending disregarded?

Not really.

The old ending was loose enough so that a lot of new and smaller stories could be packed in. I'll try to keep everything in line with the old ending while making room for the new stories.

Some of what I'm doing is helping to set up for an open ended series as well as running with the Doc Marten story line. I'll have an additional one or two episodes before winter sets in, which will be interesting enough in itself.

Thanks,
WW

[WildWest]

Day 124

Sunday

We missed services last week. I can’t believe it’s only been a week. Seven days ago is when we battled and defeated the pirates. Seven days ago is when we lost Patricia. Seven days ago is when we lost Rex. The world is moving so fast, I have to keep reminding myself of how little time has actually gone by. It’s about time I slowed down for a moment and give thanks for making it through everything happening around us and still holding onto what is good.

Service this morning was refreshing. I suppose I wasn’t so polished in my speaking, but the message was from the heart. I opened with a reminder of how we have been through so much in the last four months. “We have lost our world and our loved ones. Yet, we are still holding onto our humanity. We have as much safety as anyone in the world can expect nowadays. We have food and water for the winter. We even have hope that our community can survive and thrive for a long time to come. Most of all, we have each other.”

“Aren’t these things to be thankful for? Aren’t these things of value and are worth praising? We can get so caught up in fighting for our lives and struggling against the storm around us that we forget to be thankful for the good things we have. We were all like that before the apocalypse, too busy to be thankful for what we had. Now it’s easy to just say we don’t have time for thanks because we’re too busy struggling to survive.”

“That’s a good excuse. Except that it misses the point. The real point is in the attitude we carry with us throughout the day. Are we always focusing on ourselves and what we need or want? Can we step outside of our selfish perspective and think of others? Can we even get ourselves long enough to thank our provider for what He has given us to carry us through?”

“If we can do this, we’ll find that we are no longer lost individuals being tossed about in this mad world. We will find that we are part of a family. A family in this small community we call Samaritan Station. Also we will realize we are part of a heavenly family. We will realize we are children of God.”

Kevin played well this morning. He had been practicing a few nights this week. He had some help today that made the music richer. Rachael was on percussion while Evelyn sang. She has a beautiful voice. It was a wonderful treat, especially knowing that she is very shy about her singing. I liked seeing her be brave and perform in front of everyone.

Luke 17:11-19
Ten Lepers Cleansed

Now it happened as He went to Jerusalem that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off. And they lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”
So when He saw them, He said to them, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed.
And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan.
So Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?” And He said to him, “Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well.”

[WildWest]

Day 124

Part 2

I didn’t take the afternoon off today. I would have liked to, but we needed to make our time window to help Doc and winter wasn’t too far away. Fabian, Vicky, and Richard really made everything happen. They work extremely well together. On more than one occasion they saw that an idea wasn’t working, brainstormed a solution, and then put it into action. We wrapped up the day by five in the afternoon.

I grabbed Kelsey, Jared, and Eduard after that. I needed to talk to them right away.

[WildWest]

Day 125

“Doc, are you there?” asked Kelsey, speaking into her transmitter.

“I’m here. Where else would I be?”

“Doing a house call, of course. Don’t all doctors do that?”

“Have you been watching reruns from the fifties? I don’t know a doctor under a hundred that has ever made a house call.” Doc laughed. “Are you guys still planning to pick us up some time?”
“We’re planning on it. I want to see if I can ride along with my uncle. He’s not sure though. He complained about there not being enough room. I think he was just trying to keep me shut indoors.”

“I don’t blame him. I want to keep myself shut indoors.”

“Very funny,” Kelsey replied, “you should change your name to joker.”

“What do you people do for entertainment over there?”

“I like to listen to music or watch movies.”

“You have electricity?”

“We sure do! We even have enough to keep my little brother busy on the X-box for hours. What do you do for entertainment?”

“Daydream. I just daydream.”

[WildWest]

Day 125

Part 2

“Thanks Doc, I appreciate that.”

“Not a problem. I’m just glad to help. So, we getting out of here in the morning?”

“We have some work to do before we head back. It should take only a day or two if we can find what we need. Once that’s done we’ll head home and finally be ready for the winter.” I said.

“What do we need to get?” Doc asked.

“Sheep!” Jared announced.

“Don’t forget the cows.” Eduard chimed in.

“Chickens and pigs too, if we can find them.” I added. “Feed and supplies enough for a year to go with it if we can manage.”

“A little ambitious, don’t you think.” Doc said to me.

“I have high hopes.” I said, winking at the two teens. They just smiled back.

[WildWest]

Day 125

Part 3

I left with Jared and Eduard at the crack of dawn. We had three of the older dump trucks with cyclone fencing welded and clamped across the windshields and doors. The added protection would keep us from getting hurt if the windows were broken out during our trip. The lead truck also had an added feature;two iron plates in a shallow “V” were welded onto the front bumper. It reminded me of a cow catcher on a steam train from the old west.

The route was simple, but not easy. We traced our previous route when we got the tractors. That took us out the Lincoln gate, left on Glassel, across the river, and across the freeway. Nothing had changed from our first run through this stretch of town. We had a path through the wrecks and turned right onto La Palma Avenue where the zombies were a little thinner. We stayed in a single file convoy the entire time, me in front, followed by Jared, and Eduard trailed.

Fifteen miles an hour was all I did going through these streets. It was fast enough to outpace the zombies, but not risk real damage from them striking any of the trucks. I also liked having plenty of time to pick out a path around or through groups of cars without needing to stop. This worked well after we passed the small strawberry farm where we picked up the tractors.

This road wasn’t going to take us where we needed to go though. Several blocks down the road was blocked at Imperial Highway. An accident eight lanes wide and fifty cars long blocked the intersection. There’s no doubt that it was because this was near the freeway onramp and people were desperate to get out. I half expected a problem here though. I used to work down the street and this intersection was always tough when people weren’t eating each other.

We just did a slow U-turn and took a side street to the next main street farther from the freeway. It had a new underpass that had always been seldom used and got us past Imperial Highway. This road was Orangethorpe and it ran next to the main rail line heading east, out of the county. Orangethorpe had little traffic at this end and was less likely to be blocked than other streets. This was going to be our highway.

We had another underpass get us past Yorba Linda Boulevard, but we needed to change streets again. This was where Orangethorpe diverged from the rail line and went into the hills. An access road crossed the railroad tracks at this point. I drove through the chain ling gate, over the tracks, and turned east onto La Palma Avenue again. We were skirting some ritzy suburbs at the edge of Orange County hers and shouldn’t have too much trouble with wrecks.

We had picked up quite a following on our drive. I’m sure we had over a thousand zombies trailing behind in a train that was a mile or two long. As long as we didn’t have to back-track too much, we would be fine. I thought that too soon. We had to back-track a bit when we got to Gypsum Canyon Road. This street had another freeway entrance and the jam stretched well onto La Palma in both directions. We would be mobbed long before we could clear a lane. The sidewalks weren’t an option either as people had desperately tried to use them already.

We did another U-turn, this time slower since the road wasn’t as wide and smashed a dozen or more zeds as we took a detour through the ritzy neighborhood. The road I was hoping to take was Camp Bryant Road. The only problem was it had an underpass to get by the rail line. That underpass had what was left of a fiery pileup jammed inside. Again, it wasn’t passable.

My heart started racing now. I knew there wasn’t another cross street farther down in the residential area and zombies were already flowing into the neighborhood. I worried that we would need to do what I did next eventually, I just wanted to wait till the last minute if I could.

I pulled left heading east on a street that ran parallel to the railroad tracks. Once an access road appeared, I lead the convoy over the curb and onto the north edge of the tracks. We would use the railway for our highway. I just hoped we didn’t have any bridges we needed to cross.

This worked out well for us over the next three miles. We outpaced the zombies while moving at an easy ten miles an hour. The dump trucks were at home on the dusty gravel of the rail bed. We had a small hitch when we had a bridge over a bike path that ran up to the dam in Corona. We could get off and go onto the bike path, it was wide and paved. I had ridden on it many times over the last few years. That would take us onto the north side of the dam though. We would have to go to the far north to get around it and make our way back south again. Then, we would have to make a bridge crossing and multiple freeway crossing in thickly populated areas.

I wanted to try crossing the freeway at Green River instead. It was the first exit for Corona, but was in a lightly populated area since it is at the base of the hills on the other side of the freeway. This meant we were going to risk riding on the rails.

The gravel was well maintained and was level with the railroad ties. Getting onto the tracks wasn’t too tough. We didn’t have a blowout hopping the rail and straddling to one side. I found that it wasn’t as bumpy of a ride as I expected and we stayed on the rails for two miles, until we reached Green River. The road was impassable.

We didn’t miss a beat. Zombies were pouring off of the highway trying to get us. We stayed on the rail line as it passed under the freeway. The zombies were walking off the edge of the freeway and started raining down on us in an attempt to reach us. I had one land on the passenger side of the windshield and shatter the entire glass. I was blind for a minute with a bloody carcass squirming in front of me. Using a tire iron on the front seat that I had for this purpose, I smashed out a little viewport so I could see where I was driving. Then I pulled my 9mm from its holster and shot the zombie between the eyes when it turned to get me. It fell onto the hood. I pulled right and tapped the brakes, letting it slide off the hood and onto the tracks.

I finished popping out some more of the shattered glass just in time to see the access road. I pulled to the right and we were on Green River, heading into the back hills of Corona, Riverside County.

The truck was a mess. I pulled onto an access road to a municipal water storage compound up the hill. I rammed through the gate and led the convoy in a wide turn facing back to the gate. The hillside was bare this time of year and we were temporarily out of sire from the surging river of zombies near the highway. I yelled to Jared and Eduard to meet at Jared’s truck and we would clear the area.

Hopping out with our .22s with MP4s slung, we checked around and under the vehicles, the Jared hopped onto his truck to provide security while Eduard and I quickly moved through the water depot and around the tank. It was clear.

Eduard helped me take out the windshield from inside the cab and sweep away most of the glass. Jared stayed on top of his truck and watched at the bottom of the hill. Most of the zombies were following the rail line east. I guess there weren’t enough of them that got a clear view of us turn off because of the trees and buildings near the tracks. What a break, we might be able to take a breath before moving out again.

Jared had the sharpest eyes, so I had him keep watch. I asked Eduard to carefully lay some dirt over the blood and guts left coating the hood of my truck. I didn’t want to smell it or look at it any more than I had to. I pulled out my map and the notes I had made. I quickly checked the next leg of our journey in case we needed to move out quickly, then made notes in my journal about the route we took to get here and what we saw on the way.

I called Eduard over and asked him how he was doing in his truck. He smiled uneasily and said he was doing fine. I had him go over the next part of the route with me. We would take Green River to where it made a dog-leg northeast, then go right onto Ontario where we could skirt near the hillside. I wanted to stay at the edge of the residential area as much as possible. I was also hoping that the zombies were at least partially lazy and would go downhill more often than uphill. That would mean still thinner hordes for us to deal with. Ontario would take us to Magnolia and Magnolia is where I wanted to cross the 15 freeway.

I made sure the boys made a pit stop, had a drink, and were focused again before hitting the road. We pulled down onto Green River and made our right turn along the base of the hill. Only a few zombies got in our way down this road and we made our dog-leg turn left. Then I got a bit uneasy.

Down this road were a few open fields and more dense housing. Cars were stalled in the narrow road that caused us to slow down and weave through. More zombies were in the area as well. I smashed over a dozen in the three blocks before turning onto Ontario. It only got worse from there.

Ontario opened into a wider street, but a lot more cars were strewn about on the road. No major pileups blocked the road entirely, but I needed to smash my way past several stalled sedans. Smash was the word because the road had become thick with zombies. Half way to our Magnolia turnoff it looked like we might get bogged down in the wrecks and the bodies. I punched the accelerator and sped up to twenty five. This made the “V” bumper on my truck act like a knife and zombies started losing their legs, torsos flying through the air and then splattering on the pavement. I had to scoot into the center of the cab because a bloody mist was making it through the edges of what used to be my windshield. What a mess.

I slowed down a little as we approached the 15 interchange. More cars were here, but I was able to find a lane through the McDonald’s parking lot and the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street. Only one car had to be knocked out of the way. Once on the other side, I paused the convoy and took a look back.

Thousands upon thousands of zombies were flowing down the gentle slope towards us, the leading edge only a few minutes away. I grabbed a towel from my bag and quickly wiped myself off. After donning my sunglasses and a facemask, I started the convoy rolling again.

Originally I wanted to take a road that ran close to the railroad through riverside, but I caught a glimpse of that horde we had started by the freeway. There were five or ten thousand zombies shambling down the rail line stirring up all the zeds within shuffling distance. That route was out. We couldn’t stand still for the second horde, so I drove us along the base of the hills to our right and made our way east.

The road had plenty of turns and some small wrecks we needed to push out of the way, but we were able to get by. It was still dangerously close to the rail line in places and we picked up a following that measured in the hundreds. That was manageable until we squeezed past the hills and could hook south and east again to place some distance from the first two hordes.

We had some relief crossing through a semi-rural area down Victoria Avenue in Riverside. When the land opened up a bit we could see the tree line bustling in all directions. Our sound was carrying and they were coming out to meet us. By the time we crossed the two miles to another stretch of residential housing, we were pushing through and over a small mob reaching their arms out for us. For some reason, this seemed one of the creepiest moments to me on our expedition. I could just here them in my imagination saying “Brains…I want your brains…”.

We pressed on some more and cut to the right after making it past the line of hills on the right. We were getting close to the 216/60 interchange for Moreno Valley. I had one last trick for losing our following and sneak across our last freeway.

We turned down Allesadro Boulevard and plowed through crowds and wrecks till we reached the turnoff I had been waiting for. It was the access road behind the sewage treatment plant. It was a packed dirt road that went outside the fence of this enormous facility. A lot of zombies followed us, but such a large mass does not turn on a dime to move between a fence and an industrial building to chase a target they can’t necessarily see anymore. As such, well over ninety percent of the horde kept moving down Allesandro and away from where we were going.

We turned onto another access road that took us down a slope, through a gully, and up into a heavy industrial area. Using my side mirror I would guess only a hundred or so zeds were on our trail, but the terrain would slow them a bit and they may thin out some more before entering the industrial park.

What I saw here made my heart jump and then fall. To the left was a huge distribution center for Ralph’s grocery stores. This was probably their hub for much of Southern California. I’m sure there was enough food for our group to last many years. The only problem was it was way out here and we had other things to bring back with us on this trip. I put the thought out of my mind and headed to the right.

The freeway crossing was easy here because it was used almost entirely by the distributors here and they shut down before the panic spread to this area. We moved into Moreno valley and did a zig-zag pattern to the southeastern edge of town to minimize our following until we arrived and Moreno Beach Boulevard, a mile away from Doc’s fire house.

[Bearcat]

Sorry to be picky, but when you say MP4 are you referring to the .40cal version of the MP5 sub machine gun or the M4 carbine?

[WildWest]

Sorry to be picky, but when you say MP4 are you referring to the .40cal version of the MP5 sub machine gun or the M4 carbine?

The M4 carbine. I'll make the changes in future posts.

Thanks,
WW

[WildWest]

Day 125

Part 4

Now was the time for an extra helping of care. We aren’t expected for another week yet and Doc’s group has heard all about the pirates. Also, we couldn’t really be sure they were on the up-and-up about anything.

We skirted around their location, through a new country club community and drove out into the eastern farmland. From here we went southeast and stopped in a small wildlife refuge. From here, we rested a bit and planned a fallback position in case we needed to make a run for it and stay the night. I didn’t want us moving around in the dark, trying to refuel and make it home. That would be suicide.

Once we had ourselves together and understood the plan, we headed out. Most of the day was already gone and it was nearly five in the afternoon. We were fed, watered, and armed if something went bad. Now we just needed some good fortune.

We approached from the east and south. As we drove up I could see figures standing on the top of this two story concrete fire house. A few dozen zombies were crowding around the base of the building, especially in front of the four vehicle bays. Entry wasn’t going to be easy. We drove carefully up to the building and distracted the zombies, taking care not to draw any more in from the surrounding areas than we had to.

I signaled to Jared and Eduard the zones they would take for crushing zombies and we got to work. The dozens around the fire house were the easy part. Many hundreds more poured in from an adjacent subdivision and two others half a mile away. We had to be patient, but we pressed them into the dirt over the next two hours and walked right up to the door and introduced ourselves.

[WildWest]

Day 125

Part 5

It turned out that Doc was the real deal. He’s a forty-eight year old registered nurse that worked in the ER of a hospital in Riverside. He had ended his shift a couple hours before the outbreak started so he didn’t die in the first hour like half the hospital staff in Southern California. His wife woke him up and they bolted out to a friend’s ranch southeast of Moreno Valley.

Doc sure is an independent sort. He pulls graying hair back in a pony tail and carries around a lever action rifle like it’s been his friend from childhood. He was real grateful and friendly after I told him who we were. He wasn’t twitchy at all, that was good for our safety in those beginning moments of our meeting.

His wife Susan, a petite retired school teacher, and their grand daughter Chelsea stood hand in hand behind him at the door. Susan made it clear she stood by her man no matter what was going to happen. I got the impression that they’ve had a long and strong marriage. Later I found out that they were near forty years and had been high school sweethearts.

Margy was in one of the offices getting their bedding ready for the night. She was thirty two years old and had been travelling back to Riverside from Hemet when people started to flee. She was run off the road and had to hitch a ride. After some desperate experiences in those first hours, she ended up at the ranch with Jack and Renee.

Jack and Renee left the ranch to see what was happening by the highway when they came across a battered and bruised Margy. Jack couldn’t stand the idea of leaving her at the mercy of the monsters fleeing the city or the zombies chasing them. With all the people there already, he figured, why not one more.

All the other people were those that they lost while holding the ranch. Twenty-four people were at the ranch that night. Jacks dad and mom were joined by his two brothers and their families, two electric company workers passing through, a family of five that came in from the highway before the road became a slaughterhouse, and two neighbors that were too scared to head home that day. They were well armed, had lots of ammunition, got water from a well, and had enough food on the rand to last them a couple of months. Their numbers were decimated in the first couple of days. Aside from those standing here, only one of Jack’s brothers, his wife and child made it through the first assault.

The experience left them shocked so they went into hiding in the barn, a heavy steel structure where they baked in the day and froze at night. They did weather the apocalypse for a while though. Doc became the unofficial leader of the group when he seemed to have the best ideas for staying alive and people appreciated that. Also the fact that he was a lifelong hunter and taught them to stay quit and made them feel protected.

Margy had the van headlights on as we walked into the vehicle bay. There was plenty of room to squeeze in the dump trucks, so we parked them inside. No sooner had we gotten them parked, and then I told Jared and Eduard to get our beds ready for the night. I needed Doc to make a phone call.

The part of the plan that made me most nervous wasn’t driving through a million hungry zombies. It was leaving my family and having those murderous pirates attack while I was away. We prepared as best we could before leaving, considering the time available. The wall defenses are going up and we brought in the additional supplies they will need if they have to hunker down for a siege, the winter, or both. I also knew they monitored our transmissions. The pirates proved that by tailoring their attack based on the information we broadcasted. I needed to make sure they didn’t know we were splitting our group for even a short period of time. This was going to be a secret mission.

Doc was happy to play along with it. He knew the stakes were high. He also had some idea that we would be nicer for his family to bunk with that pirates that are willing to slaughter strangers for an extra few bottles of booze.

The part of the whole plan Doc needed time to get his mind around was the next two days. I told him I wanted to get farm animals, especially breeding pairs. Also, I wanted to pick up a huge amount of feed and transport all of this back to Samaritan Station. He thought going through grocery stores would be a bit more practical. At least until I told him we had plenty of food to last us well into next year. I paused and then the light went off. He had been living for a plan to take care of next week or next month, not a plan to take care of five years or a lifetime. Once he got it, he was all in to get it done. In fact, he seemed genuinely relieved to know someone was hoping and planning for a lifetime, a lifetime his grand-daughter could enjoy.

[WildWest]

Day 126

Jack seemed to have a good idea where we could go for the feed supplies nearby. He knew of two feed supply stores in Hemet, to the south of here. They were the closest feed stores and in the smallest town out of our choices on hand. One of the stores was on the outskirts of town. We decided to head for that one, checking forms and houses on the way for any animals that might still be alive. We piled into the dump trucks and went south.

The drive was not very encouraging. The fields we passed were mostly brown, dead with stunted and dried plants or bare dirt. These farms run on irrigated water. Once the electricity failed, the water failed, and the crops died. The little bit of green that we did see we native plants starting to encroach on the fields. This land would revert back to its natural state pretty quick, I was sure.

Plenty of zombies were roaming about on Gilman Springs Road, our route down to Hemet. Lots of people had been caught out on this road and their cars were abandoned in place. I’m sure many of the zombies have migrated out here over time, since almost every car seemed to have one or two hiding out.

We pulled off the main road to and headed to a group of farm building clustered a few hundred yards off the main road. Here we took the time to smash our trailing horde and the dozen or so from the buildings. Thankfully it didn’t take too long, only an hour or so.

Once we were clear, I broke us up into three teams of three and we separated to see what was left behind. I asked everyone to look for fuel, feed, and animals first. I had a bunch of nods and we separated. I went to the main house with Margy and Jack. Doc headed over to the main equipment building with Jared and Eduard. Susan and Renee stayed behind at the trucks with Chelsea and locked themselves inside.

A took Jack and Margy on a walk around the back of the farm house. We found a canal with some muddy water trickling through it, beyond a playground that had been built. I got a huge grin on my face by what I saw. Half a dozen chickens were walking through the yard or resting under the bushed in the shade. They didn’t make any noise, so I was scared stiff when I heard a short crow from what seemed to be right behind my head. I spun around, aiming my rifle, only to see a rooster perched atop the low wood railing of the porch. Apparently he was in charge.

We struck gold in this yard, but catching them was going to be a trick. I asked Jack if he had any ideas, but he never raised chickens. His dad had sheep and that’s what he had learned about growing up. He did have an idea though. He reasoned that the chickens would flee if we got close, aiming for a clear exit. He suggested we first find whatever we would use to hold them. Then grab some blankets to use as barriers or nets. I thought it was a stroke of genius. We got to work.

Doc found a fuel tank next to the equipment building that was half-full of diesel. There was no hand pump around so he and the boys used a siphon to fill all the trucks. This seemed to take forever, but we had time. It took us till late morning to capture the chickens and get them into a pet carrier and some plastic milk crates we had modified for cages.

We were on the road again by eleven. Taking a turnoff north of Hemet, we cut west through more dead farms till we were on the west side of town. We paused at several farms along the way, but there were no signs of any living animals. Turning south again and following next to a large irrigation canal, we saw sheep grazing on what was left of a grassy field.

Only a few zombies were within half a mile of us at this point, so we stopped to see if we could corral them. Jack told us to park the trucks before and past the sheep. We got out and formed a loose line to corral them towards a U-shaped area defined by the trucks and canal. This turned out to be easier than I expected. Several got out by running between us, but most stayed with the group and didn’t try moving out across the canal. We had enough time to load eighteen of them into the back of one dump truck before the zombies got uncomfortably close.

Jared and Eduard picked the zombies off with their .22s and the remaining sheep scattered. There was no catching them after that. We wrapped up our sheep trap and continued on toward the feed store.

The feed lot had lots of open land around it, for being so close to a town. A manufactured home dealership and a trailer storage lot were on either side of the Ww Feed lot. This was a good visit. We loaded up the trucks with pallet after pallet of feed. Easily enough to feed the chickens for years and supplement the sheep for a good long time. We even grabbed a pallet of dog food since we will be having our own pack soon. Two of the trucks were fully loaded with the feed and a few other odd supplies we would find very useful.

We then hooked up three of the largest livestock trailers to the dump trucks. It’s giving us a long convoy, but I want to make sure this trip is worth it. We wrapped up the day with moving the sheep into one of the trailers, stopping at the canal to water the animals, and heading back to the firehouse.

[WildWest]

Day 126

Part 2

“Doc, are you listening in tonight?”

“I listen every night girl. It’s a good thing my wife isn’t the jealous type or I’d be in trouble.”

“Tell her she has nothing to worry about. I’ve already given my heart away.”

“Good to hear that. Any other good news? When are we going to get rescued?”

“My uncle is working on that. Hopefully we’ll be able to pick you up by next week. He’s running into some problems on how to get out there.”

“Just so long as he gets here before winter. If we don’t get rescued in the next couple of weeks, we’ll probably have to make a run for enough food to last till April. You know what I mean?”

“I get you Doc. We won’t disappoint you.”

[WildWest]

Day 127

Jack had a friend that raised cattle near Perris. He also knew that he leased land on a slope near Lake Perris. We were going to head out there today to see if milk or beef would ever be on our menu.

Starting out was a bit odd this morning. We had to get on the roof and pop over a dozen zeds before going out to the trucks. The rigs were too big for the vehicle bays and the zombies wouldn’t give us the time last night to unhitch anything. It worked out well enough though and we al headed down south.

We hooked around Lake Perris from the south to avoid most of the suburbs. We pulled into the recreation area and could see quite a few animals on the lakeside slopes. A few were zombies, but most were sheep. On the north slope we saw what we wanted through our binoculars, cows. I’m not sure I could have identified a bull at that distance, but I didn’t think I saw one, just cows with a fair number of calves.

We unhitched Jared’s trailer as his truck was unloaded, and had him run smashing duty for the zombies. We then dropped the sheep trailer from my truck and hitched the empty. That gave us two empty trailers for the cattle, if we could ever catch any.

This is where my bright idea came in. I knew enough that we weren’t likely to be able to walk right up to them and lead them straight into the trailer. We sure couldn’t pick them up like we did the sheep. Using some hundred foot ropes we tied off onto the trucks or trailers, we looped the few cows we could and then coaxed them into the trailers. It was easier said than done. I ate dirt several times on just the first momma cow. This was the majority of our day. I think we spent a good ten hours playing cattle rancher in our silly city-slicker way.

I’m glad we persisted and stayed relatively unmolested, at least until the disaster happened.

We’re pretty sure about how it unfolded. As near as we can tell, Margy didn’t suffer long. Though we had cleared the area of zeds by making noise and smashing them before moving about, a crawler was still in the bushes. Of course it had tried to come when we called it earlier, but not having legs and being in thick brush meant it didn’t make it into the open for us to nail it.

Margy left to go to the bathroom behind the bushes. They were thick and the crawler was silent. She didn’t see or hear a thing. The bloody handprints on her face indicated that it grabbed her with both hands and too a large chunk from her neck. She probably went into shock immediately, because nobody heard a scream. Nobody really noticed her running out of the bushes a couple minutes later either.

We were all trying to drag a young calf into one of the trailers when Margy, bloody and fast, tackled Eduard at full speed near the trailer. He was bitten several times in a few seconds. The group around the trailer scattered. I whipped up my M4 and started dropping rounds into the mass of bloody flesh that was Margy and Eduard. I hit both of them several times each and they stopped moving. I gave each one an additional tap to the head to make sure.

I yelled to Jared, “Hook up the sheep, we got to run!”

We had the trailer hooked up and were on the road as a horde was coming out of the suburbs below the lake. We hooked south and east, wading through a lake of zombies. Hundreds were already in our path. They didn’t stop the power of our dump trucks though.

We were exhausted when we got back to the fire house.

[WildWest]

Day 128

We packed up before dawn and cleared the zombies around the firehouse as soon as we could make out their silhouettes. We drove the trucks and the pickups down to the farm with the diesel so we could top off the tanks. It went a bit faster today because the tanks weren’t as low, though our spirits were.

We used the time to transfer the supplies from Doc’s pickups to a dump truck and were on the road again by eight-thirty. I’d reviewed my book of notes last night and sketched out our return trip. There weren’t any tight wrecks on turns we couldn’t make, so my only worry about the trailers was the gully behind the Ralph’s distribution center and the rail line closer to home. We should still be okay with these as long as we take it calm and easy. These trucks have plenty of power to east through these obstacles pulling loaded trailers.

I did make one change this time. I took lead with Eduard’s truck, since it had a windshield. Jack took my truck at the end of the convoy.

The road back was just as terrifying as the trip east had been. We caused multiple hordes to form and follow us westward. The biggest horde was well over ten thousand that we kicked up going through Riverside. We lost them when we crossed the 15 into Corona. I’m sure most of them scattered through Corona since their heading was straight for the hills.

My notes were pretty good and we didn’t miss any of the major turns on the way to the railroad tracks. The ride on the tracks was really rough for the animals. The trailers wanted to bounce off them if we went over ten miles an hour. We slowed down and made up the distance from our hordes when we hit the surface streets.

It was seven at night when we pulled up to the Lincoln barricade. Will had spotted our approach and had Fabian and Evelyn open it up for us. This took an interminable amount of time as we had to run down dozens of stragglers from the neighborhood, with trailers in tow.

We were met with smiles, but they noticed right away our missing Eduard. We stowed the trailers inside the outer wall in the dark, then fed and watered the animals before heading in. Doc’s group had already been welcomed into the villa and was getting to know everyone.

My exhaustion was complete.

[WildWest]

Day 128

Part 2

Kelsey broadcast tonight like she had the night before. She paused the recorded messages and asked if Doc was there. There was no answer of course. Doc was inside the house having a cup of coffee and some cake. She was terrified last night when nobody came to the radio. They all feared that the group met disaster. They did of course, but didn’t get on the radio for fear of their stress giving away their plot.

The ruse was intact still. They would transmit for another day or two, then, just stop trying to reach Doc, as if their group had been destroyed. It kept the pirates from knowing their strength was lower for a couple of days, and it would keep them from knowing about a bigger prize to be won until after the defenses had been improved. Maybe even till after the zombies wound back up.

The police in Westminster transmitted tonight. They told of another pirate attack, this time in Long Beach. A small group had been holding out in an old brick warehouse used by a small convenience store chain. They holed up and lived on snacks for months. They made the mistake of signaling a pirate patrol when they saw them travelling out of the shipping terminal district. Their second mistake was not surrendering and paying tribute.

The pirates had more of a fight than they expected and broke radio silence in the middle of the battle to call in a special attack. They backed up a refrigerated cargo truck at high speed and rammed a hole in the wall. From there, they somehow popped the back doors off and out came runners. The group never had a chance.

[WildWest]

Day 129

Will and Maria spent the morning giving Doc’s group the grand tour. They definitely seemed relieved to be behind the walls of Samaritan Station. Their tour took them through the inner and outer compounds, and the garden. They seemed impressed by what we had accomplished and were eager to help make it more than it is.

Maria helped them get settle in two more houses in the villa after lunch. This involved getting the supplies to clean them up and dump any debris they came across, as well as locating some additional essentials that they had not brought with them. It would take days till they were really settled in, but they had a pretty good head start.

I had asked Maria to see about setting up a clinic for Doc as soon as possible. She took him aside in the afternoon to select two rooms in the house where he, Susan, and Chelsea were staying for this purpose. He gave her a long list of basic supplies to be on the lookout for before Maria left them to settle in. Maria said she had a good feeling about this group. They were friendly and wanted to help. They were also grateful for being rescued, even if they did lose one of their group in the process.

I spent the morning walking through the wall plans and inspecting the work with Fabian and Richard. Fabian had made tremendous progress with the tunnels, but clearing them out was the biggest problem. They also lost half a day when his torch started a fire after cutting through the wall of a filled container. They evacuated the tunnel and he cut an access hole on the outside for them to douse the flames. Clearing the air was another problem, so he and Richard cut vents in the containers on the interior side to improve the air quality. They then set fans on the main openings to blow out the fumes.

Because the clearing took the most time, Fabian had been able to anchor the containers together, both to the side and top to bottom. He even had Mark cutting anchor points in the floor so they could drill out and sink pipes into the asphalt below. It was all a great way to make them resistant to being battered down or knocked over. It even made them more earthquake safe. The more immediate problem was that they needed more supplies than what they had on hand to finish the job, and that it was going to take longer than I would like.

The supply problem we should be able to deal with through a couple of days in our industrial area. I want to set up more outer barricades with cars near Katella anyway.

When heading out for the morning I grabbed Lauren and Rachael for a new task. I asked them to fill a trough with water, I had unloaded it last night, and then let the sheep out to get food and water. They could wander around the outer compound for the day until I could talk with Jack and plan how we would care for them properly. I told them not to let the cows out yet, but to put water buckets in their trailers, making sure all the cows had access to the water, then, to put buckets of feed into the trailers for them. I want them cared for, but I don’t want them running around free until we have a spot for them. They’re too hard for us to round up yet.

Finally, I asked Vicky to work on a chicken coop that we can place in the inner compound. We have all the necessary supplies to get it done and I’m sure she’ll do a great job. Sarah and Jackson were excited about helping her.

I took a longer than normal lunch. I missed my wife and we spent a couple hours in the back patio catching up with each other and with her relaxing in my arms. It was so stressful having me gone on the expedition. She didn’t know if she would ever see me again. To tell the truth, the expedition was so scary that I have no inclination to do something like that again, at least not without a darned good reason.

The afternoon was more of a planning time for me. I made some tables of tasks that needed to be accomplished, special talents and preferences of people in our community, and special projects that need to be complete, complete with timelines.

Angela spent the afternoon in the garden as she usually does. She has many of the children well trained to help her in the fields. She oversees the watering, weeding, fertilizing, and everything else that needs to be dome to get the crop in. It’s actually doing quite well. We’ll have a fair amount of fresh food this fall and do a winter planting as well. Then we’ll expand our capacity next spring.

[WildWest]

Day 129

Part 2

“They came out of the docks, I saw them!” the desperate voice came across the radio.

“Are there many of you left?” Kelsey asked, full of concern.

“Only the three of us. The monsters are using the zombies as weapons.” The desperate man was almost hysterical. He described how the pirates put tall extension ladders next to their building, let loose twenty or so runners from a refrigerated truck, and then watched as they smashed through the skylights. Eight of their group died in moments.

“Are you sure you saw where they came from? What were the street names?”

The man rattled off some street names that she didn’t know, but she wrote them down anyway.

“Can you hold out?” Kelsey asked again.

“No. we have to make a run for it. We have a truck ready to go. We’ll try to make it there if we can.”

There was nothing more.

[WildWest]

Day 129

Part 3

“We need them dead!”

The room was silent after that statement. It was made in a cold and clinical manner. Nobody said anything to argue against it.

“Better to get it done before the start of winter. We can’t do anything once millions zombies are out smashing and climbing all over everything.” The voice continued coldly, “We can’t expect them to fall apart on their own; they’ve proven themselves to be too well organized.”

“How do we do it?” A younger and more excited voice asked, “They’re a long way away. We’re not even sure what their defenses will be like.”

“It can’t be too much different than what we have.” A female voice interrupted, “Walls, guns, and a zombie horde as a buffer. What else is there to know?”

“We need to know more about their defenses before we go after them!” the young and excited voice demanded, “If we go in without knowing what they have in store for us we could all get killed. Then what good will all this be?”

“Stop it.” The cold voice said quietly. They stopped out of respect and fear of the unknown. “I know how we could do it. They won’t suspect a thing.”

The cold voice explained a particularly gruesome course of action. The other two gasped. They were appalled by the grotesque nature of the attack. They were appalled that it had been so clearly thought out. They were impressed by their chances of having it work.

“You know what it will take to get ready for it?” the female voice said with thorough understanding of what would be required.

“I know.” The cold voice said in the same even tone he had been using.

There was an uncomfortably long pause, it seemed like hours.

“Then we are agreed?” still cold and steady.

“Yes” and “Yes” were the answers.

“We start getting ready tomorrow morning. I already have the plans we need. We’ll get some help building the machines, but everything else stays between us.”

“Agreed” was their answer. Steel had entered into their voices.

“Then we are done.”

The meeting broke up.

I drank a cup of warm tea by the front window as Will and Kelsey headed off to bed.

[Bearcat]

MOAR! Just to clarify, Eduard was the sniper correct?