Stewart, Amelia, Tom and Max were gathered around the table in the dining room, bowls from breakfast and other used dishes were scattered around them, Jessica and Erin were gathering them up to bring into the kitchen where Kenny was washing while Cory dried. The four adults were looking at an atlas that Tom had gotten from a closet in the house. It was several years old, but the main roads were still present.
“I say we stick with highway thirty.” Stewart said.
Tom shook his head, “It is too close to the main highway until we get to Grand Island, you've seen how the roads are. If your 'Red' is right things are just going to get worse from here on out.”
Earlier Red had advised the group to head north before turning east again. He said he could sense more zombies along what he thought was the main highway, plus a large group of them by the capital, Lincoln. Stewart was advocating that they go up highway thirty, which veered north of the capital, it would save them the trouble of traveling two hours north on highway eighty three out of North Platte. Max didn't like Stewart's idea, but was having trouble disagreeing with the woman. Finally, when all three of them were looking at him he said, “I think we need to put as much distance between us and the main highway as possible. I would rather go up highway eighty three to highway twenty and take it across. From what Red said it should be relatively free of wrecks and zombies.”
Stewart sighed and leaned back, “What the fuck, there goes all reason. If you believe Red about this, then you know we have to get to Iowa as soon as possible and tell the army to drop another nuke on Chicago, probably on Willis Tower. He gave us less than two weeks to get there, at the rate we are going, this detour will add another three to four days to the trip.”
“It won't, the roads should be clear, we should be able to make it in a day, if we don't have to stop after forty miles.”
“It is four hundred miles to Sioux City going this way! We'd be lucky to make it in a week let alone a day!”
“Then we would get there with five days to spare!” Max said. Stewart and him were staring at each other, then she smiled and laughed, easing the tension in the room.
“Okay, fine. We do it your way. But I reserve the right say 'I told you so' when when everything goes wrong.”
“When can we leave?” Max asked everyone.
“The kids have a few things to pack up and we should make lunch for when we need it later. We could be out of here in half an hour.” said Amelia.
“Okay, then let's go. Tom, is there anything you want to bring?” asked Max
“No, my mom and dad took the guns. Do we have time to board up the back window?” They had just taped up plastic sheeting with duct tape the night before.
“I suppose, if you think we have to.”
“Well we might be back someday.”
“Fine, I will go with you while Stewart and Amelia herd the kids.”
“I love you too.” Stewart said with some sarcasm.
Max let Stewart's comment go without reply and followed Tom out to the barn to find some boards to cover the broken window in the back door.
“You think this is stupid, huh?” asked Tom.
“Pretty much, yeah. I kind of have this feeling we won't be back through here.”
Tom shrugged and powered up his father's table saw, he cut down a long piece of lumber into three even lengths then shut off the saw. “Well Max I think we will come back, at least someone will. And who knows maybe someone will need the place for shelter? With the back door fixed up it will at least be one less way for the zombies to get in.”
“Sure Tom.”
Pulling a cordless drill off of the tool bench Tom handed it and a box of wood screws to Max, then picked up the wood. Together they got the window covered in just a few minutes, the boards were not wide enough to fill in the entire window so Tom just put them on over top of the plastic.
“Not the best job, but it should hold up.” Tom said when they were done. He turned and inspected the kitchen, looking at the gunshot scarred floor and cupboard doors. “I hope we don't make it back here in a way, if my mom saw what we did to her kitchen she would be pissed.”
Max laughed and went to help the women get the kids through the bathroom while Tom put the tools back into the barn. Less than five minutes later the two vehicles were reloaded and ready to go. Tom finished topping off the gas tanks of both cars and then set the empty gas can by the side of the door to the barn. They had gotten rid of some of the items they were carrying, now that they had a plan to reach Iowa in a day or less they offloaded most of the camping gear and the extra room to move around in the van made the kids more comfortable.
Kenny and Seth piled into the back of the police cruiser with Riley while Erin, Nick, Jessica and Cory got into the van. Max looked over at Stewart, who was set to drive her cruiser and raised his eyebrows.
“The kids chose where they wanted to go. Our only comment was that they couldn't fight about it. And Kenny has to take his shoes off right away so his feet don't start to stink.” Stewart shrugged, “And they all took showers, so the 'kid funk' smell shouldn't be too bad today.”
“Okay, got it, everyone ready to go?”
The other three adults nodded and hopped into the two vehicles. Stewart took the lead and they headed west back to highway eighty three where they turned north. Max scanned the area ahead and beside them for undead, he found Red fairly easily, just north of town, but not within eyesight. Max waved his hand and was not surprised to see Red's arm wave back.
The morning passed by swiftly, the highway passed well outside of the few small towns that dotted the prairie and they were able to maintain speeds close to the limit almost the entire journey to highway twenty. It was at highway twenty that they saw the first zombie of the day. The man was standing to the west of the intersection, about a quarter mile away, he was wearing overalls and had a red bandana wrapped around his head. It was too far away to make out anything else, but Max knew it for what it was without needed to get any closer.
“Amelia, let Stewart know that is a zombie and to keep going.” Amelia got on the short range radio and told Stewart what Max had said. Behind the zombie there were three dark plumes of smoke rising into the sky.
“It is Valentine that way, isn't it?” He asked her.
“Lemme check real quick.” Amelia pulled out their old road map to check for the town's name, “Yeah.”
“So they made it this far. I hope the rest of the trip is as easy as this, we came farther today than we did in the last two days.”
“Yeah, but we want to go east, we are only going to start getting closer to our goal now.”
They followed Stewart as she made the turn and headed east. For the next hundred miles they were still able to maintain a good speed, but there were wrecks on the road and they did see several zombies, however none were close enough to cause the group any problems. Up ahead was the city of O'Neill, they had been seeing signs for it the past hour and Amelia had been talking with Stewart about trying to stop there to eat lunch and stretch out a bit, either in the town if it appeared deserted or just to the east of it along the road if there were zombie around.
As they pulled up to the town they saw a road block ahead of them, flashing lights from a police car were the first thing they noticed, then they saw the military trucks. Stewart slowed to a crawl and got on the radio to Max.
“You got any feelings about this?”
Max was a little surprised, upon seeing the flashing lights he had felt a sense of relief, that finally they had outdistanced the zombies and made it back to safety. He hadn't thought to check the people ahead to be sure they were who they appeared to be. “All alive, so far as I can tell.”
“Okay, then lets head in.” Stewart did not pick up the pace, but glided in slowly towards the men who were pointing guns at them. About a hundred yards in front of the barricade were two vehicles that were bullet ridden with no windows, as they passed them by Max saw obvious signs of blood and gore that had barely been cleaned
