“I’ll go back with you Danny” Frank said.
“I uh know of a place we can try. A friend of mine called me at the start of this damn apocalypse and told me of a secure location. The only reason we haven’t tried it before now is because we have never travelled this far North. But since we’re already halfway there should we try?” John asked. He hadn’t given us a lot of information about the new location to make our decision but since nobody else had any other ideas then we agreed that we would give it a go.
It was decided that we would keep the largest of the military vehicles to take with us. Jacks and his two men along with Frank kept what food and water that they needed for the drive home and gave us the rest to go on with. Nia and Will showed me the loot that they had left with.
“Ok then, let’s go. Jacks be careful, please. You know where we are headed should you need to find us” I hugged him. Daniel Jacks was a good man, a man I had come to like. I knew that he needed to go back and see if he could save the camp but if they didn’t choose to come with Will and his group then maybe they didn’t need saving. Maybe they were happy to sit back and let Gary tell them what to do and how to live.
“See you again. I hope.”
We watched them drive away until the dust settled. I was excited to be with my friends again. Even though not all of us that had escaped Duncan’s crew was here I had the most important ones. I vowed that one day when this was all over that I would go back and visit my family. My heart ached for leaving them behind, along with my precious album of family photos.
I gave Nia Billy’s dog tags, she didn’t say anything, just hugged me tightly and got into the back of the car. I hopped in too, a little excited for the journey ahead.
There was excited chatter from everyone. We didn’t want to have left camp three and some of our friends behind. I was going to miss Kandace, Annabelle and nurse Amy the most. Annabelle, the doctor, had chosen to stay behind to help those who needed her there. For that we were sad but for the adventure ahead, the journey into the unknown, of what we would discover next, we were all tremendously happy and excited.
We got to the place that John had led us to after three days, not trusting to drive in the dark. We would pull over then take it in turns to sleep, there were also a lot more road blocks along the route. Set up by the military to try to control the situation, now long abandoned.
We had travelled miles across the country and still had not seen another living person. There were plenty of undead, however these ones seemed even slower than the others.
The place looked amazing, thick, high fences covered in barbed wire. Two exits; one East and one West. Massive gates on wheels, covered in hard wooden boards.
We drove around it three times to check out the security, there were a few shamblers around but otherwise all was quiet.
We stopped our cars at the West gate just next to the security cabin. Nia was driving our jeep; we had been taking it in turns to drive, each of us exhausted by knowing that we had to keep moving as far away as possible from camp three.
Will radioed the cars behind “keep your engines running for now, John can you come and join us up front? Over”
Quiet static returned, Will slipped it back into his shirt pocket. Today he wore what were once dark denim jeans but were now quite faded, a black shirt, and black boots.
John joined us in front of the gate and knocked on it loudly. Will and I kept an eye out for zombies.
Nobody replied, John pulled at the latch on the gate but it didn’t open.
“It’s padlocked from the other side, I may be able to get a bolt cutter through.” He ran to his truck and back to us quickly. He looked excited, I smiled at him.
“always wanted to try it” he explained sheepishly.
There was a satisfying clunk as the chain broke and then the clatter as it swung down along the inside of the gate. He looked smug and grabbed hold of the gate, pulling it open with two hands. It was on wheels but extremely large and heavy and so it took some effort. Normally it would run on electric, now it ran on man power.
John was putting all his energy into opening it as Will checked out our surroundings. Neither of them saw the gun.
“Duck!” I screamed.
Both of them used to training now hit the deck quickly as I ducked behind the fence as a bullet whizzed past us.
“I don’t want no trouble, turn around and leave. Or I will shoot” a gruff sounding voice called out, it was followed by a sickly cough and the gate being heaved closed again. We all looked at each other in shock. We should have expected the response we got but we had thought we would have been welcomed with open arms. My heart was pounding from the shock of the gun firing at us.
“I’ll take care of this” John boldly walked up to the closed gate and banged hard on it three times. He reminded me of the wolf from the three pigs story; I just hoped that he didn’t end up in a stew.
Chapter 13
“I’m looking for Mick. He told me if I was ever in trouble to
