four minutes recording a final farewell to the camera lens. The crew started packing up the van and getting ready to go after that. Jeremy had been correct about Mary and her family, she made it clear they were staying on. Despite Ned's offer to escort Paige and Mike, in Paige's car, to the nearest military station, Paige said she too was staying on. Mike just shrugged his shoulders and shook his head.
The van's front tire had to be changed out, so the whole group went house to house to look for a compatible vehicle to get a new tire from. They did not have to search for long, Dora's neighbor Russell had a spare set of rims in his garage for his truck, with snow tires on them, they were not precisely what the van needed, but they would work. The only drawback was they wanted the tires on the back, as they were slightly larger than tires the van had. Because the front tire of the van had been blown that meant they had to change three tires instead of just putting a new one on.
'Well, we probably would have had to change both the front tires anyway.' said Cameron, 'So they would match. Changing three instead of two isn't that big of deal.'
The guardsmen took the opportunity to get a couple hours sleep while Dora and her gang provided cover to keep the zombies away. By eleven in the morning, the job was finished and the weather was blazing hot. The clouds and rain of the previous day were long gone and the humidity made breathing a sluggish chore. The area's electricity was still going, so Dora had the house air conditioning on full blast. Mike and Paige made the group lunch and they sat down with the news crew one last time.
'So, you will keep filming for how long?' asked Paige, serving up a cold cuts sandwich to Ned.
'Depends on when we start to go. None of us feel too bad yet. It's there though, like a poison slowly working through my system. I can't say how long it will be really. I've seen people bit up like Marge was and they go fast. Maybe we won't go at all. Somehow I don't think that's realistic. Say a week at the outside?'
Kerim said, 'I say five days. We've heard for the lightly wounded that's about how long it takes to fight off the body's defenses. We were all lucky really, just scrapes, I think I have the worst case.' He pulled up the fatigues on his left leg to reveal a white bandage on the side of his lower leg, from the edges of the gauze there was a deep purplish blue streak running up and down through his flesh.
'Does it hurt?' Peter asked, craning his neck around to look at the wound.
'Like a bad bruise. It's tender. So far it isn't bothering me too much. Every day though, it's worse and hurts a little more. And I am getting tired. I could have slept ten hours, not that I am complaining about the time you let me sack out.'
'We are going to radio our superiors your location.' Kerim said to Dora after the meal and while they were cleaning up the dishes.
Dora shrugged, 'What will they do? Evacuate us?'
He shook his head, 'I doubt it, they don't have time to protect or evacuate fools like you. They might, I say might, check up on you when they can. I spoke with my Sargent, who spoke with our lieutenant, who had news from further up the line that the soldiers seemed happy to see you doing what you are doing. Fighting back instead of running.'
'We aren't really, you know.' said Dora.
'Aren't really what?'
'Fighting back. We are just holding our ground like in the Hobbit where Gimpy raised his staff and fought the demon. The giant flaming demon the bagman?'
Kerim's face turned pale, 'You did not just say that.'
'Bagman?' Dora asked puzzled.
'I loved that movie, the Lord of the Rings, does that mean anything to you?'
'Yeah, yeah with Orlando Bloom as the fairy guy. It was awesome. I had dreams about him…and his bow.'
'Stop. You're ruining my childhood memories. That was my favorite movie when I was a kid. I watched it so much my dad said he thought the plastic was going to melt in the dvd player.'
'Oh, well I just liked Bloom, he was good.'
'So you mean you are going to hold out like Gandalf the wizard against the Balrog in the mines of Moria?'
Dora waved her hands and nodded enthusiastically. 'Yeah, yeah, whatever. Are you sure he fought a 'balrog'?'
'Absolutely.'
'What kind of name is 'Kerim' anyway?'
'Bosnian. I was named for my grandfather, my parents came over during the atrocities when they were young. They grew up here, but still found each other and married. I am first generation American, or more like generation one point five, my parents both arrived when they were like, six.'
'Huh? Sad I don't even know where my parents came from. I mean Kansas, yeah, but before that? No idea. It never really interested me. Hey, Ned?' Dora called to the man as he was lugging a bag out the front door.
Ned turned back, 'Yeah Dora?'
'You leaving?'
'Well I was going to come back in for a final goodbye, but yeah we gotta get moving.' said Ned.
'Let's go, John.' Kerim said from beside Dora.
The people who were staying gathered in the living room to say goodbye. Mary was crying, which made Peter look like he was going to cry too. John put his hand on the boy's shoulder and leaned over and whispered something into the boy's ear, whatever it was seemed to work and he perked up immediately.
The men all shook hands with the other men of the house and gave the women hugs, then they filed out the door. The house members followed them outside and watched as their van pulled away and drove up the block, leaving in the opposite direction from where they had arrived. The road still had bodies here and there and the van had no choice but to drive over some of them as it went, although Cameron was doing his best to avoid that. Mary quickly brought Peter back inside, leaving the other adults on the porch looking after the vehicle until it was gone.
'Well.' said Dora, 'I think we need to get some of these bodies off the road. And we need more vehicles, in case we ever have to run for it. Russ's truck would be a good start, but I think we should get all the vehicles we can and park them across the road as a kind of road block to keep the riff-raff out.'
'We'll need our own power sooner or later too.' Alex said. 'We should make a list of the places that might have generators and go out and get one, or three. Plus fuel and the cold cuts are all gone. It would be a good idea to start stockpiling some food.'
Dora looked at him, 'You know Alex, you are so different from Mike and Paige. I think those are all good ideas. Mike, Paige? Listen to the man and take notes.'
Alex looked a little surprised as he followed the others into the house.
Part II. Six weeks later
Chapter 26
The break in the weather was a welcome relief to the group staying in the neighborhood, the power had long ago gone off and while they had generators they limited them to a common entertainment room to power up a television and keep a line of freezers and refrigerators running. Fuel was going to be a problem. It was weighing on Dora's mind heavily this mid September morning. Dora was sick, some bug she had picked up from the last refugees the army had dumped off on her.
