Sam heard several loud pistol blasts from the other side of the truck; he glanced over and saw JR carefully aiming and making head shots at two undead stumbling toward them along the highway’s shoulder. She wore a hard scowl on her face. She needed to improve her accuracy quickly, but she hit the upper skulls of both targets with her fifth and sixth shots. She quickly learned every shot needed to be pinpointed, not just near the brain. He turned back to the melee and made three more shots. Finally all the zombies were neutralized; unfortunately there were no humans left standing. The damage had been done in mere minutes. A horn honked mournfully as the line of traffic behind them pulled out to the left shoulder and passed while avoiding running over as much zombie debris as possible. Five vehicles passed; no one stopped to help. Fear was rampant and self-preservation ruled. Passenger’s faces pressed against the windows to see what zombies looked like. He wondered if they were disappointed to learn they looked like ordinary people whose bodies had been bloodied and abused.
Sam motioned to JR. “Bring the truck forward.” He waved for her to pull ahead slowly. “I’ll walk ahead and make sure the zombies are all finished, and no humans remain.” Sadly everyone on the road was dead. He quickly saw the reason the convoy stopped. The middle camping trailer pulled by a full sized Lincoln sedan had a flat rear tire on the driver’s side. Three revolvers, a rifle and a shotgun laid among the downed zombies. He wouldn’t touch them because they were probably contaminated. The poor, uninformed victims wasted precious time shooting the zombies torsos instead of their brains. He turned back to JR. “Park off the roadway behind the other vehicles while we nose around. It’ll be dark soon, so we need to be gone before then. We know zombies are in the neighborhood and don’t want to be caught in the dark by more of them.
“We’ll search the vehicles and trailers quickly and take anything we can use. These people don’t need it and there’s no sense in it going to waste. But be extremely careful and stay close together. A zombie could be lurking inside one of the trailers waiting for a careless human. Don’t touch any of the dead; I read online that their body fluids could possibly be contagious and affect humans after some unspecified period of time. That’s probably how they got into our country. If a human in Europe or Asia was contaminated even slightly before they flew here, but they showed no symptoms, it might take several days or even weeks for the change to take place.” JR stepped from the truck before he said, “ I’ll put the rifle in the truck and lock it, we’ll use handguns when we search. Load a fresh magazine if you haven’t already.”
“I’ve already filled the magazine I was using. Let’s get stated.”
They walked through the carnage staying far away from making contact with the large blood spots.
They looked in the lead pickup first, then moved to the attached trailer. Leaving their homes appeared to be a last minute decision for those people because there was little evidence of prior planning and provision buying. The only sign of preparation was a money stash in a sock drawer. Under the truck’s shell Sam found and claimed three cases of canned meats, four cases of vegetables, and two cases of bottled water. Those were likely bought as an afterthought on their way out of town.
From the rest of the vehicles and two trailers, they collected more cases of canned and dry foods, three cases of beer, and a small array of firearms and ammunition. Each trailer contained a hidden money supply, and one had ten one ounce gold coins with its currency. JR noted surprise at not finding any pets in or around the trailers. “If they had pets, I guess they were abandoned.”
Entering the last trailer, they stopped at the subdued sound of muted whimpers. The sounds stopped. Then as they crept ahead it started again. Cautiously they approached a narrow, vertical closet door in the main room where the slight sounds emanated. Sam positioned JR to be behind the door when he opened it. He twisted the knob and the door popped open an inch. Using the longest knife from a kitchen caddy, he pushed the door open rather quickly. Boom! A gun blast surprised them as a bullet zinged past Sam. He lurched backward as he took the slack out of the Glock’s trigger before he saw a small child huddled on the floor with a revolver clutched in her hands and her eyes closed. “Whoa, stop little girl. Don’t shoot. The zombies are dead and it’s safe to come out now.”
JR poked her head around the door and spoke softly, “Hi, my name is JR. What is your name?”
Tears flowed down the girl’s cheeks as she fearfully focused back and forth between the strangers. “Put the gun down and come out and let me hug you,” JR said. After a few seconds hesitation, the small frame revolver clunked to the floor and the child stood. “What’s your name?” JR asked.
”Breyna.” The small, dark skinned, kinky haired girl replied.
“Come with me and I’ll wash
