Eric drove the truck keeping Brian and his four-wheeler within thirty feet of the truck’s grill at all times. They drove at a comfortable twenty-five miles per hour. Safety had become a lot more important a consideration versus speed in the last few days. They had been driving for ten minutes or so already and despite their near straight line westward they couldn’t manage to keep up with the sun that was sinking closer and closer to the edge of the hills setting the sky on fire with a violent orange glow. Travis was proving to be as big a pain in the ass as Sanchez had lead Eric to believe. The kid was nice enough but between his clumsy nature and his nonstop mouth Eric was starting to wish that he’d come on the trip alone.
“So what do you think of those girls back at the farmhouse, the ones from that coffee shop you guys stopped at on your way out of Spokane? They’re hot aren’t they?” Travis like any seventeen year old male in America was so obsessed with sex that he barely had enough brain power to spare to power his lung to take his next breath.
Eric rolled his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, “yeah they’re all pretty women but they’ve each lost someone I think so maybe not the best idea to try asking them on a date just yet.” The short tip with Travis had forced Eric to develop a mantra that he started in again as he crossed his fingers and hoped that his words would derail the young man from talking for five seconds.
“Oh yeah well I wasn’t thinking about asking any of them out today. I mean where I am going to take them anyway it’s not like we can to out to dinner or a movie or anything.” The boundless limits of the kid’s questions and observations about the minutia of the lives they had lost was irritating. “Do you think any of them would like to, you know, get together with a guy like me? I mean I’ve been out on a mission and fought off zombies, well one zombie and I didn’t really do anything but girls like the hero type right?”
Eric took in a deep breath to calm himself holding the air in his chest for a count of ten before letting the air out of his chest in a roar gush. He felt some of the tension escape his body with the air but he was sure Travis would say something any minute to drop that tension back on Eric’s shoulders. “So girls do Travis but right now I don’t think anyone’s thinking about dating or sex. We don’t have a steady food supply yet and those emergency rations that are at the house won’t last us a full year. Plus there are zombies out there that are eventually going to wander into our camp and we don’t have any defenses. I’m pretty sure those kinds of things are the only things on anyone’s mind right now.”
The kid didn’t even wait a beat after the words were out of Eric’s mouth before he plowed ahead, “oh yeah of course but I mean eventually people will settle down and start thinking about that stuff, I mean some of those girls are going to be baby crazy now right? Making sure there’s a next generation and stuff.”
Eric took another deep breath and set his eyes back on the road. Maybe if he ignored the kid he’d get the hint and shut up. Eric didn’t feel good about being intentionally mean to the kid he was just trying to find something about the life he had before the zombies came to hold onto but his preoccupation with sex was driving Eric crazy.
Sex made Eric think about Lindsey. There was more to it than what a seventeen year old could comprehend or understand about sex. It was only part of an adult relationship. A teenager couldn’t truly understand or appreciate the intimacy and closeness sex nurtured between two people. Eric was missing that now. The thought of Lindsey and the easy nature that they had always had in bed brought his thoughts back to his concerns about her. He didn’t keep his phone on at all times, eventually the power grid was going to fail and then they wouldn’t have any electricity. Until that happened Eric wanted to save the power in his phone so he could on occasion look at the pictures he had stored in his phone of Lindsey. He was wishing he had it now just to see her smiling face cuddling with Baxter on the couch in summer day last year. It was his home screen on his cell phone.
Lost in his own thoughts Eric managed to escape the questions and thoughts of Travis for a few short minutes. As he started to float towards the surface of his memories Eric watched as Brian pulled the ATV to the left onto a dirt road immediately kicking up a cloud of dirt as he started up the road. Eric pushed hard against the brake as his wandering mind had tried to keep him from making the turn; he slowed enough to make a sharp but controlled turn onto the road easing on the gas as he went. It would be easy to miss Brian in the cloud of dirt and accidently run the farmer down.
They drove in the haze of the dirt cloud for another couple of minutes neither Eric nor Travis talking. The sky that they could barely see through the haze was starting to darken. The deep orange having already turned from the blood red to a slowly darkening purple, another five minutes and it would be dark blue and shortly black. Eric hoped that what they found when they got the farmhouse was a secure building without any sign of zombies. Defending the house at night would be treacherous; their visibility would be so reduced that they’d probably all be taken down from behind. Eric eased up on the gas some more as they came around a sharp bend in the road and then saw the cloud of dirt settling.
Brian was already off the ATV and heading towards the door. He scanned the area as he went, he held a deer rifle that Eric hadn’t noticed before nestled in the crook of his arm but kept the barrel pointed to the ground.
As the last arms of the dirt cloud fell back to the ground Eric took a quick moment to survey the small houses exterior. Eric immediately grew to like Brian and he was sure the man’s family. They had boarded up the windows nailing thick 2x6s to the exteriors of the windows. It was a smart move that they would have to duplicate at the farmhouse, the zombies pressing themselves against the boarded up windows would actually push the 2x6s deeper into the house making the fortification stronger.
Brian was at the door waving his hand to Eric and Travis calling them into the house. Eric grabbed the kid’s arm and watched the door. Eric didn’t want to intrude on the man’s private welcome with his family. After a half minute passed Eric nodded to Travis and the two pushed open their doors and headed towards the house guns pointing towards the ground but ready to be snapped up in an instance.
They crossed the short distance at a brisk walk without being accosted or attacked by any zombies. They got to the door and had to squeeze in between the doorframe and Brian would was holding bracing himself against the door leaving just enough room for a slim man to slip into the house. Eric pushed through the door behind Travis and as he took a step deeper into the house Brian snapped the door shut behind him and jammed a chair under the door. Eric looked at the man and then down at the floor. The farmer had nailed a thick 4x4 to the floor of his house and was using it to prop the chair against the door. The chair looked handmade the craftsmanship stellar. The reinforcement of the door would hold up to massive pressure against the door. Eric was glad they had decided to help the farmer and his family; he looked like the type of guy who would be helpful around the farmhouse.
“Come on in young men and make yourself at home.” He swept his arm across the expanse of his living room inviting the two men in. “Jenna, we’ve got a couple of guests for dinner so have the kids set two more places at the table,” Brian called down the hall to a wife Eric assumed was toiling away at the stove and sending their kids scurrying around the kitchen and the dining room setting a family dinner. A part of Eric hated to intrude on such an intimate ritual but they’d come to provide whatever help they could and to refuse these people’s hospitality for their help would have been offensive.
Travis moved to the couch set in the small living room. It was a cozy room that saw a lot more “living” then most. There were sleeping bags and pillows set on the floor and what looked like a fort built out of a few sheets. Eric wondered if it had been Brian or his wife who had come up with the idea of a living room campout when the crisis first got started. Either way it was likely to keep their kids’ minds focused on fun and not the horrors lurking outside their door.
“You want a beer before dinner?” Eric was pulled away from his deep appreciation of the family campout by Brian’s offer. He turned to the old farmer who held up a beer by the bottle neck and pointed it at Eric. It might very well be one of if not the last beer Eric would ever get so he grabbed the bottle and thanked the farmer. “No need for thanking me young man, we couldn’t be more grateful for your willingness to help us.” He looked back into the hallway leading into the dining room make sure no one was within earshot before continuing, “I’ve been out there for the last two days from first like till near nightfall looking for others, looking for help. I hadn’t found any until I spotted you guys at the seed store.” He face grew heavy and his eyes grew far away as he drifted back into the memories and flashes he had experienced during his long trek for aid. “I found a lot of other things thought, some of those dead things lurking around, a half dozen abandoned farms and homes out here, and I found some friends who had taken the coward’s way out in the end. I hate to speak ill of the dead but there were better ways to approach this thing. They could have come looking for others like I did, or tried to set up some semblance of a new life but they didn’t. I found a lot more people then I would have expected who decided to make their last meal a bullet.
Popping the top off the beer Eric took a long deep swig of the golden liquid before he spoke, “I guess we’re lucky that way. Everyone I’ve seen so far has tried to fight. Some of them died, we lost a man securing the feed story and we lost one three days ago escaping the city. I don’t know about the other survivors but everyone I’ve met so far has decided to fight.”
“You think your little group will be able to hold out, I only ask cause I don’t want to give Jenna and the kids some hope if it doesn’t look good you understand?’ The liquid wells of Brian’s eyes seemed to quiver with anticipation? With hope? Eric wasn’t sure but he believed that they could survive this thing at the farmhouse and he told the farmer the exact same thing. “Good to hear,” Brian stared through the scene of family unity the living room campout created before taking a slow swig of his beer.
“Sanchez is a good guy. He’s smart and he’s fair and he hasn’t asked anyone to do anything he isn’t willing to do himself which I have to respect. It’s why I came to the feed store with him, hell it’s why I left my house when he and the other officers showed up to rescue me.” Eric paused to take another sip of his beer before going on, “I’m hoping he finds some way to take charge of the group at the farmhouse. Charles, that guy who clocked me, he’s been trying to climb onto the throne since we met him. He’s a good enough guy but he doesn’t see the big picture. We need to come together and help each other. There’ll be plenty of time in the coming weeks to fight but right now we need to bring people into our community not push them out.”
Brian nodded to himself like he could see clearly the intricate machinations that were already going on inside the farmhouse community. He took another sip of his beer and then spoke, “I’ve met men like that over the years. Nothing wrong with them but they have only one solution to every problem. Your right about him though if this Charles guy is in charge you’ll have trouble.”
“If you men would like to join us for grace we can eat.” The voice was melodic but had a firm undertone to it. His mind immediately went to the old west schoolmarm caricature when he heard the voice. Brian’s wife was probably all sugar and spice but probably had a way of making her point made and getting her way when she wanted too.
His thoughts were confirmed when Brian turned to him and said, “Better do as she says. Jenna is a real angel if you treat her right and keep her happy but get on her bad side and she’s as mean as a badger.” With that the old farmer turned and head into the dining room Eric hot on his heels and Travis bringing up the rear.
Brian took a seat at the head of the table, his wife Jenna to his left, their three kids sitting in a line to Jenna’s left. Eric and Travis took a chair each on the right hand side of the table their backs to the front door. Brian cleared his throat and then spoke in soft caressing tones to Jenna, “honey, do you mind saying grace before we each.”
“Yes, I think it’s only right, especially today,” Jenna cast a thankful gaze on Eric and then shifted it to Travis for a second before bowing her head. “We thank you lord for the food we are about to eat and thank you for watching over our family and for answering our prayers to send us aid and protectors as we struggle through these dark days. Amen.”