'Yes he woke up around noon, hungry, I am pretty sure he has a concussion, a small skull fracture, but his eyes are normal and his vital signs are good. Steve wanted to talk to him, so when Peter said he felt up to it, they chatted for a few minutes.'
'I debriefed Peter and he told me that when the scouts went out yesterday Jeff told them to not kill any zombies, to try and sneak by them. He told me there were, well, what I can only describe as pickets, guards, out in the wasteland where everything was bombed out. There were pairs of them, one slow zombie with one slinker. They were not moving, just watching, with the slow zombie up and visible and the slinker under cover. What does that sound like to you?'
'Guards.' admitted Dora.
'Slow, mindless zombies as guards. And remember the tape, they brought that poor man in from the dumpster and when they pushed him out, the told him he was going the wrong way. Like they expected the slow zombie to do what they said. And the zombie started to do it too.'
'Until it noticed Jeff.' said Paige.
'So they have control over them somehow. What if that control is some sort of mental control? What if they can read the minds of those that they kill?'
No one in the council said anything, Dora broke the silence by laughing, 'Sorry, but that is pretty far-fetched. We can't prove it. But what you are saying is they wouldn't torture us, but would just kill us and read our minds if they caught us?'
Steve's face had flushed a little, in anger or embarrassment, 'That's my theory, yes. Look I know it sounds strange, but just keep it in the realm of possibility okay?'
'My mind is open. What you're saying is they don't need a spy in Doraville, they just grab one of us whenever they want to know what is going on. If what you say is true, and I am not buying into it, but you handle security, right? So if what you say is true, how do we go about getting stage two ready without letting them know?'
'Here is what I thought of, first we call all the adults together, just the over twenty year olds, tell them what is going on and of the need for secrecy.'
'Wait, wait, when we lose people the over twenties are the first to go!' protested Dora, 'Telling them is like telling the zombies, if what you say it true.'
'Just let me continue. If what I suspect is true, the zombies will find out anyway. So we tell the adults, we wait a day or two, see if the attacks lessen like we all think they are going to. In two days, we get the buses, day three we gather the fuel and four days from now we get the fuck out of Doraville. Four days to evacuate. Two buses should be enough if we only pack fuel and food.'
'And dogs. Do we have enough bus drivers? Can we get fuel?'
'No certified bus drivers, but how hard can it be to get one moving forward and drive? They take diesel, we don't have a lot of diesel, but that is good, because we have not been scavenging it from the nearby areas, so it should be easy to top off the tanks and get another fifty or so gallons for each bus.'
'What else do we need to do if we leave in four days?'
'We'll get the buses, take out a few seats in back, load up the supplies and that's it. If we can meet that goal and keep anyone from being taken for four days, we can get out of here before even Sargent Tiller comes back.'
'Okay I like this. I agree with it. I think we will need a few extra vehicles too, we can take my Suburban and another larger vehicle to go ahead and behind the buses as guards and maybe a motorcycle or a couple smaller cars to roam ahead and scout the roads. What about a wrecker to move vehicles out of the road if we need to?'
'Good idea. That would be good. So let's say, three motorcycles, two Suburbans, a wrecker and two buses. That should give us even more room in the buses, if we have four to each suburban and three in the wrecker.'
'Jesus, do we have that many drivers?'
'Some of the older kids can fire rifles or shotguns from the Suburbans, and we can take one in the wrecker, the third man in the wrecker will just be there as a lookout for the other two when they are hooking up the truck.'
'Do we have anyone who knows how to use a tow truck?'
Steve looked at Dora, 'Yeah, me.'
'I have been on a few hook ups too.' said Alex, 'Maybe if Peter is up to it, he can be the scout with us?'
Mary did not look pleased with this, but merely said, 'We'll see.' She knew Peter would have to be somewhere and if not with her then with his dad was the next safest place.
'Any of the kids ride motorcycles?'
'What?' asked Mary, 'Dora you can't think about putting them on a motorcycle, they would be alone!'
'I can think it and I am. Just check around. A guy on a motorcycle is going to be vulnerable, he can't steer with one hand and shoot with the other, so we want people riding them that will run away if they hit trouble. The kids are ideal for it.'
'I just can't…that is too much risk.' said Mary.
'Just ask, let's see what we get. Try the fourteen and over crowd first, okay?'
'Okay. I will, if Mary will not. I can see your logic.' said Alex.
'Is everyone agreed that we follow Steve's plan?' The council nodded, 'Then it is unanimous, let's get the word out that there is a town meeting tonight, and we need to speak to the adults first at a pre-town meeting, say it is about drinking alcohol or vaccinations or something that no one would want to attend. Make it boring. Can you handle that Paige?'
'Sure, no problem. Sterilizing wounds.'
'Good! I knew I kept you around for a reason. Other than the good loving, of course.'
The other council members scoffed at this, but said nothing.
'So, Steve you get with everyone about what we need to gather up. I think putting it in my garage until we leave would be best, out of sight, out of mind and if the 'National Guard' finds out we just tell them we are making a supply storage area for the winter.'
The meeting was not adjourned right away, they all stayed and worked out what they thought they would need for the journey and there was a brief debate on whether to send another group out scouting to the north east where the Iowan's hopefully were still fighting.
Chapter 33
The town pre-meeting with the adults went about as well as could have been expected. The town meeting afterwards was a little bit hostile because of the rumors floating around about the Iowan's not being where they were supposed to be. Dora addressed it with the bare truth; no one knew where they were. She mentioned that the council was trying to make plans about what to do and if anyone had suggestions they should contact her or another council member.
Tim, who had been at the earlier meeting, then got up and told the whole town that the council was concealing things from them, that they knew the national guardsmen who came to town were zombies and that they were all planning on leaving as soon as they could. Dora looked on with amusement, while he spoke, she thought Steve was going to shoot the man. When Tim was finished with his little speech, which ended on a high note of him calling for new leadership and implied he should be the man in charge, Dora took the floor back and gave her own speech.
'Well thank you Tim for repaying the trust we had in you. You see ladies and gentlemen and kids of all ages, what he said is essentially true, he left out the little important details, like we think the zombies will torture to death anyone they capture to find out our plans. Which is why the people who did know everything, include Tim,
