I went out in the alfalfa field and inspected the crumpled zombies. Two of the seven had been fast runners; they were full-bodied and looked human except for the redness in their eyes and the missing chunks of flesh where they'd been bitten to death before turning. None of us had any idea of what was happening with the newer zombies or how far the transformation could go. As usual, we'd have to wait, watch, and learn.
Throughout the summer months, we increased our food gathering excursions in an attempt to stay ahead of the consumption of our fifty members. We'd taken to opening outer boxes onsite to inspect the contents rather than haul them back to Deliverance only to dump the cases anyway. Often whole pallets were ruined. Many of the containers that were liquid packed had frozen, burst, and leaked during last year's hard winter. Often the boxes weakened to the point the entire three or four high stacked pallets toppled over. Without consistent roof maintenance and repair for the last four years, some roofs leaked badly allowing rain water to soak the boxes and ruin the contents. Items like dry pasta often became mush from being wet for six or more months.
Our past method of recording and tracking each store we'd visited and noting the conditions of the items we'd found became even more important. As our list of stores to skip grew longer so did the distance we had to travel to new sources of food. By now, human scavengers such as ourselves had cleaned out the nearby food stuffs in Iowa, as well as the nearby border towns in Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Kansas. Instead of driving a hundred miles, we were forced to drive two and three times further. We suspected the same thing happened in most states as survivors competed for food and struggled to stay alive. Traveling farther for food added wear on our vehicles and consumed more gallons of fuel. Three additional Ford pickups and two more Excursions were acquired off abandoned dealer's lots to supplement the larger group of people at Deliverance. Driving more vehicles farther demanded more frequent runs with the fuel truck. Some of the storage tanks we'd used in the past were empty or had slowly become contaminated. Albert Gonzales suggested trying the big above ground storage tanks at Keck Energy in Des Moines. That had been a great inspiration because there were many hundreds of thousands of gallons in the gasoline and diesel tanks he identified. Hopefully, the tanks would offer a bountiful supply for years to come.
Our huge gardens represented an experiment on one hand and a definite necessity on the other. That it was imperative we learn to feed ourselves, was a given. But how far could we afford to continue to use modern technology to enhance output? One member suggested we set a diesel pump at the lake and run a three or four inch pipe to the gardens for irrigation. Another wanted to use commercial fertilizer, insecticides and repellants, and weed control products as long as they were available.
The leadership committee circulated among our members to explain that we should get used to depending on natural rainfall, and if we used modern chemical methods until the supply of them was expended, we could be left with a severe food shortage as we learned to cope. We convinced them the hard way was a wiser choice now until we got it right while we had backup food supplies. They finally agreed even if some did so grudgingly. As a compromise, we agreed to use pumped water and chemicals on half our fields and grow the others naturally to learn how to deal with the environment and insects.
The harvest season tapered to a close, but it had gone well. The canning process for fruits and vegetables peaked as we strove to stock enough food to see us through the upcoming winter. We sampled a lot of our handiwork and were well satisfied with the results. The real test would be to see how it fared over a winter and maybe even two or more years.
Food handling work caused manpower shortages throughout the summer and early fall and all but curtailed foraging trips. With late fall approaching, those were soon to be restarted.
CHAPTER NINE
On an unforgettable Tuesday morning thirty minutes after the sun rose, everyone was up, and most had finished with breakfast.
Zeb Halcom was on duty in the southeast watch tower when I heard him call Verlie on the radio. "Momma, do you see movement on your side at the edge of the woods? I don't think it's zombies, looks more like humans sneaking around. It's almost like they're taking up positions to fight; one dropped down behind a felled log and several are hiding behind big tree trunks. All of them are wearing military camo uniforms, and they're armed with assault rifles."
"This is Momma, Zeb. I'm seeing the same thing on the west side, and I guess there are about ten or more. They just started moving through the trees and brush half a minute ago."
Zeb cut in. "That's about the same number I've seen, maybe a dozen. Tom, Shane, you guys catch that?"
I replied, "Good work, both of you. Don't sound the alarm. Stay down below the steel reinforcement so they can't shoot you. Since they might not know they've been spotted you've switched surprise from their side to our side."
"Shane, Ed, John, Andrea, Morgan, Ira and Shana. Check in." All seven replied then waited for my directions. "Shana, get all ten children to the safe room. Ed, get some heavy
