After a long pause, he clenched his fists and kicked at the ground. “Shit!” He took a deep breath and looked back up. “How bad is it?”
“Imagine your worst fucking nightmare times a million,” Clutch said bluntly.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Jase said. “Huge herds. Each one has thousands and thousands of those things.”
Tyler was silent for a moment. “Do any pose a risk to the park?”
I swallowed. “We have a week, maybe two, until the first herd gets here. If we were a hundred miles east, we’d have longer. But the park is right in their path.”
“God,” Tyler muttered.
“Camp Fox is not equipped to hold off that many zeds,” Clutch said. “The park’s hills and waterways will slow them down, but they’ll still plow right through the park. We’d burn through all of our ammo, and there’d still be more.”
“We have to run,” I added.
“Where will we run to?” Tyler asked quietly.
I shrugged. “I don’t know. We can keep ahead of the herds for a while. Maybe Montana or Wyoming where they’re building those super-cities we keep hearing about.”
Tyler shook his head. “The herds could already be hitting through those areas now.”
“Okay, then. We could go gypsy. Keep on the move until they pass through,” I said, frustrated that I had no better answer. “As long as I have a plane I can scout out areas and make sure that we’re not heading straight for another herd. Or, we can try the Pied Piper plan and lead them away from the park. That plan has never failed. If we’re lucky, the herds will stick to the roads and steer clear of the park completely. After all, it’s pretty secluded.”
Even I didn’t believe my words. Hungry zeds had a knack at sniffing out prey. A few dozen people in a small area would be a tasty snack for a herd.
“But if the plan failed, we’d be doomed,” Clutch said.
“We can’t sit on our asses and hope they bypass the park. I’ve already reached out to all my radio contacts. We have one potential option,” Tyler said finally. “How’d Marshall fare? Did Bill find his family?”
I shook my head. “It’s been completely wiped out.”
Tyler sighed. “I was afraid of that. It’s going to devastate Manny’s people.” He scratched his head. “And Bill?”
I gave him a slow shake of my head. He didn’t need to know the ugly details.
“Damn it.” He kicked a pebble on the concrete. “I need time to think. We’ll talk more after dinner. I’ll meet you all at the square,” he said and took off.
As though we hadn’t just seen the Grim Reaper headed our way, a grin grew across Jase’s face and he hustled toward the truck. “Good. I’m starving.”
Food, the best temporary medicine for a shitty day. It was the only time I knew Jase wasn’t faking his happiness. Everyone loved food now, likely because we all knew how precious it was. Without the convenience of drive-throughs and grocery stores, food took on a whole new meaning. That, plus all the hard physical work we did each day, made mealtime an almost religious experience.
I glanced back at the plane. “I’ll refuel in the morning. I didn’t see any zeds worth worrying about in the area,” I said when I saw Jase already loading Clutch onto the back of the truck. I hopped in, and Jase started the engine and stepped on the gas.
As we drove back into the park, many of the residents were outside working on their assigned tasks, such as gathering food, tending to gardens, and doing laundry. All were completely oblivious to the horde of death headed straight for them.
Jase headed straight for the park square and parked next to Tyler’s Humvee. In front of the log building, three of the park’s older residents were busy cracking walnuts, hazelnuts, and acorns that the kids had found. Everyone had a chore. No one got a free ride. Even the kids’ games had a purpose. Flag football was a popular one, where we taught them how to escape zeds. There was no football involved. One kid started without flags, and they played the role of zed. Every kid whose flags the zed took had to join its herd and go after the others. It sounded a bit morbid, but we had to train them to protect themselves. For little kids, running and hiding were their only real options.
I forced a smile and waved at the trio cracking nuts on my way into the park square.
Tyler held the door open for us. “I should warn you. They’ve been waiting here since morning,”
Clutch rolled himself in first, and Jase and I followed.
The chow area was empty except for Manny and his people. The moment we stepped inside, all eyes turned to us. Manny stood with a wide smile and headed our way. “You’re back!” He slowed down as he looked past my shoulder, then at me. “Where’s Bill?”
I’d been expecting the question and didn’t hesitate. “He decided to stay behind.”
Faces lit up. Except for Manny, whose smile had been replaced by a dubious squint of his eyes. I tried not to make contact as I followed Clutch to the food line. Jase had somehow found his way to the front of the line. A woman hustled to me and held a picture in front of my face. “Did you see my husband?”
I shook my head. “I didn’t see him.” I picked up a tray and grabbed some leftover potatoes, nuts, and berries.
Manny’s people quickly surrounded us.
“Are they okay?”
“Did you talk to Lyle?”
“What did you see?”
“Did you give them our letters?”
“Please tell us more!”
The woman who’d showed me the picture of her husband grabbed my arm. “Please take me north like you did Bill. We don’t have to land, just look for Mike. I know he’s out there. Please help me.”
“I’m sorry, but I can’t help you,” I said, not wanting to be the one responsible for crushing their precious hope. “The chance of seeing anyone from the air is so miniscule that—”
“You took Bill there. I need to get back to my husband!”
Clutch wheeled between us, forcing the woman to loosen her grip. “Cash can’t help you. None of us can,” he said.
Even though he had to look up at her, he still radiated strength. The woman’s lips pursed in anger. She spun on her heel and left us, mumbling, “Assholes.”
“Will you go back tomorrow?” someone else asked.
“No,” Clutch and I said at the same time.
“There’s no place to go back to,” Tyler said from behind us.
His words smothered the room. Even the sounds of silverware on plates silenced. In a rush, Clutch and I grabbed the rest of our food and headed to a picnic table in the corner.
The man who’d asked the last question followed. “What do you mean, ‘there’s no place to go back to’?”
I glanced down at Clutch, and then took a deep breath. “It’s not safe there.”
“What do you mean? Why won’t you tell us? What happened? If it’s not safe, why did you leave our people behind? Those are our families back there!”
I ignored him, eating with one hand while holding my Glock on my lap with the other.
“Because there was no one left to get out!” Tyler bellowed out as he sat down.
Manny clenched his eyes shut for a moment before opening them again and speaking. “We were too late.”
I pursed my lips before I finally spoke. “Some had to make it out. If they made it to cars and stayed ahead of the herds, they could’ve made it.” I wasn’t lying; I believed my words. After all, someone had to have locked the infected in the theater from the outside. Whether they got away in time…chances were no one would ever know.
“I thought they’d be safe,” one of the newcomers muttered without any inflection. “I thought the herds were following us.”