Journals of the Survivors (The Living Saga Novellas Book 1) Read online

  “Let’s do it,” Eric said the moment he stood up. “I agree with Cedric. Is there anyone willing to go if we vote yes? I’ll lead the party.”

  I could see Karli sitting in the back visibly relax when Eric volunteered to lead the mission. Then… she tensed back up when I opened my mouth, “I’m in.”

  Eric smiled at me.

  “Me too,” another guy said. He was just as large as Eric, maybe even a bit larger. I knew what he had been though. It was obvious to anyone who’d seen him working out in the shops. He had a huge bulldog tattoo on his back with the words ‘Semper Fi’ stamped directly above it.

  “And you are?” Sue, one of the more influential women of the group asked.

  “Lucas Hargrave, ma’am,” he answered. He was another I had brought back.

  The last volunteer was one who’d found us. He had managed to stumble up to the building in the dead of night and scared us half to death. We let him in, of course. He was cold and hungry. He’s turned out to be a huge asset though. I’ve never learned his first name, he just goes by Collins.

  I was prepared to think we had enough. I was also prepared to think I wasn’t needed. These three guys were each muscular and had experience fighting. They were all older and more prepared than me. I was beginning to wonder if I should sit it out when Eric spoke up again, “Boy, you’re going too.”

  At first, I thought he was talking to me. I was a bit shocked, because I’d already volunteered. Then, I saw he was talking to the kid that I’d brought in with them. I honestly don’t even know his name… only the nickname I gave him, Squirrel.

  It wasn’t a perfect vote in our favor, not even close. But, the vote did pass. That was the important thing. I think it was the influence of the soldiers that did it, too.

  The next day, we left out. We took a limited amount of supplies, only enough for a few hours. Since the rest of the crew going was fairly new to our group, none of them had seen the cage roller truck yet.

  Since it used so much fuel, and we were really low on diesel, we kept it parked in the far back shop room. The moment we walked in on it, Squirrel’s jaw dropped. I heard one of the other guys whistle.

  Eric walked forward chuckling. They had seen our armored Jeep Wrangler. That’s the one I normally drove around in. But seeing a fully armored Chevy 3500 dually was a different game all-together. Especially since it had a huge solid metal cage welded over the truck bed.

  Eric patted the sheet metal as he walked around it. “Seems secure,” he remarked as he climbed in. “Go ahead, Cedric. You can drive us. You know the place.”

  It was a fairly short drive. Cherokee High School, where we were staying, was on the outskirts of a small town. It was extremely rural, but it was a ten-minute drive back. That’s as far as we went, right back to the edge of town.

  I could see a few restaurants and stores in a small strip-mall. I had an extremely bad experience at this particular Taco Bell recently, but it wasn’t due to the food. It was actually due to the fact I wound up on the roof and had to jump off. But that’s a story for a different day.

  Once we parked the truck, we began to hoof it. We had a plan to scope out certain parts of town that would be valuable. Eric, Lucas, and Squirrel weren’t from Rogersville, so Collins and I had to help out with mapping and directions.

  We hadn’t been out of the truck for more than ten minutes when we heard gunfire and the pavement at our feet began to pop with ricocheted bullets. I felt a hand on my back pushing me quickly to a building. Before I could fully register what was happening, Collins busted through the glass door of an accounting office and threw me inside. The other four were right behind me.

  “I think they know we’re here,” Lucas said. That sentence stuck with me. I could hear it replaying in my mind over and over again. It was hypnotic.

  I grabbed the rifle I had slung over my back and checked the chamber. I had to pop the bolt, it wasn’t loaded. Here we were, trapped in a building, and all I had was a .22 pistol, a metal pipe, and a bolt action rifle with 6 rounds. The others had weapons too, of course, but I felt a little underpowered.

  I looked at the others after I took stock of the situation. “We need to move.”

  “We’re sitting ducks, but we’re not going anywhere,” Lucas said.

  I started to walk to the window, but Eric grabbed my shirt and pulled me to the ground. “The hell you doing?” He whispered.

  “Checking out the situation,” I said.

  “You’ve never been in a firefight, have you?” He asked.

  “No,” I said. From his tone, I knew I’d done something stupid. “I shouldn’t go to the window,” I said after a minute or two. I realized that the shooter must have seen us go inside the building. He was probably watching the windows now.

  “So, what do we do,” I asked. I waited for any of the experienced fighters to answer, but none did.

  “Okay, how about this? We go out the back. There’s a thicket of trees out there. And, we’re near the wall to the badlands,” I told them.

  The badlands. There was a trip a while back that led me into the badlands. It was the same trip that landed me on the roof of the Taco Bell. I was thinking about that trip when I remembered something else.

  “The wall that separates the badlands runs right up to the Taco Bell building. I don’t know the name of the road that the wall follows, but it does follow a road up the hill,” I told them.

  “So, what are you suggesting,” Eric said. “You want to go into the badlands?”

  “Maybe,” I said. “I’m just figuring that’s somewhere they wouldn’t want to go. If we can get to the roof of the Taco Bell, we can probably figure something out,” I told them.

  “You want to make a mad dash through the trees to the front door of Taco Bell,” Eric said. It wasn’t a question. “Keep in mind, part of that would be open parking lot, open to the sniper. Then we bust in and go to the roof?”

  “Sure,” I said. I was trying to sound brave about it. “Except, the ladder to the roof isn’t inside. At least, the one I used last time isn’t. It’s around back. We would have to make it through the Taco Bell and out the back door to get to the roof.”

  “Or,” Lucas said, “we make a strategical retreat to the truck using the trees for cover. Then we come into town a different way.”

  “Hold on,” Collins told us. He pulled a pad of paper from a desk and started drawing boxes. Once he started drawing lines, I noticed he was making an impromptu map.

  “Here’s us,” he said using a red marker to make a small circle. “We were here when we were fired upon,” he said making a small dot.

  “The shots came from the south,” he added. Then, while we all stared at the map, he kept drawing filling in details.

  Then, he started pointing and talking faster. “This is all tree cover. This is where we parked, right on the X. We came in from the east. We stayed behind these buildings,” he said drawing a long, curving arrow. “Until we came ‘round front here. That’s when we were fired at.”

  “Point?” Lucas said.

  “Sniper’s on the shopping center roof,” Eric said.

  “Bingo,” Collins said writing a giant “S” on the biggest box. We’ve just got to stay out of his line of sight. But, we need to get the truck gone. They know we’re here now. If they’ve got walkies,”

  “They do,” I interrupted. “I remember seeing them when they had me.”

  “Then,” Collins continued, “they know we’re here.”

  “Right,” I said. “Squirrel, run back to the truck. Take it back home. We’ll be back shortly. Eric, Lucas, you two are bigger targets. You’ll need to wait in the trees while Collins and I make the run for the roof. Maybe, you could even draw fire from the other end by firing at the shopping center roof. Then, duck back in.”

  “Not bad,” Eric said. “Let’s get to the back door and find our way out.”

  Turned out, there wasn’t a back door. But, Eric’s assertion that we would ‘find a way
out’ was true enough. There was an old wall style air conditioner in the back wall. Eric and Lucas had no trouble busting it out.

  One minute, Squirrel was wondering out loud how we were going to remove it. The next, the two had a table held like a battering ram and busted it through.

  Since it was ceiling high, it made a ruckus on the way down. But it was fine. We saw no infected.

  Once out, Collins and I broke off and went left. Eric and the others went right. We used the trees to hide our progress. It was slow moving, we didn’t want to draw attention by moving too fast.

  We had only brought one radio, so we didn’t have a way to communicate when we were ready. Instead, we came up with a horrible plan. We knew that Eric and Lucas would be in position first. So, once Collins and I were ready, I shot my .22 handgun into the dirt. We stayed in the trees and were well hidden. I hoped that the sniper on the roof wouldn’t be able to tell exactly where the shot came from.

  Lucky for me, Eric was ready. I heard a barrage of weapon fire and incoherent yelling as they did their part. I figured five seconds of being shot at was enough to capture the sniper’s attention, so after I counted, I ran.

  The run felt like a mile. Once we were at the door, I yanked hard. It was still locked. We didn’t have time to waste, so Collins swung his machete at the biggest window. It shattered on impact.

  Within a second, we were in and running for the back. The building smelled horrible. My last trip here, I had never made it inside. When we looked around, it was obvious someone had tried to use it as a shelter. Maybe a manager. We didn’t see any evidence of recent use though.

  We were in the building for no more than a minute. Once we had gotten to the back door, I opened it and took a tentative peek. Once I saw the immediate coast was clear, I pushed the door open all the way.

  There were five infected in the distance, but I ignored them. Collins followed me out and up the ladder. We made sure to close the door behind us too. As much as I didn’t like it, the badlands were keeping a lot of the infected inside. I didn’t want a doorway for them to escape.

  Once we were on the roof, I noticed that the gunfire had stopped. I hoped that meant that Eric and Lucas were just finished and tucked back in for safety.

  We stayed low, behind the short safety wall. The vision of the shooter would have been obstructed by the giant bell on the front logo anyway, but we didn’t want to take chance in case there was a second shooter somewhere else.

  Once we were on the front wall, we slowly rose up. We were fully hidden from the shopping center. From our vantage point, I could see Eric and Lucas. I could also see our truck making its way back home in the distance.

  “They’re all fine,” I told Collins. While I was looking to the east, he was looking to the west. We were making sure we weren’t being watched from any other angle. To the north, it was nothing but the badlands.

  He mumbled a quick response I didn’t catch. I assumed it was ‘good.’

  “See anything?” I asked.

  “Nope,” he said. “You?”

  “We’re good. Let’s check out that sniper.”

  Collins went to the ground and slid to the west wall. I stayed were I was for a moment. I waved at Eric. He waved back. It was our signal to resume.

  After that, I didn’t wait and watch him. I went to the ground and slid to the east wall just on the other side of the huge bell shaped sign. Once I heard Eric and Lucas start shooting again, I rose quickly and watched the roof of the shopping center.

  I saw muzzle flashes right above the orange text of the department store of the strip mall. I kept looking to see if there was only one gunman or multiple, but I only saw the muzzle flashes in one place. It looked like it was coming from one gun, but from that distance, there was no way to tell.

  After the gunfire stopped a half a minute later, I sat back down behind the wall. I looked at Collins who was holding up one finger.

  I nodded agreement. I slid back to the center of the roof behind the giant bell sign and stood up. I waited to for Eric and Lucas to appear behind the building to the east again.

  When they did, I held up one finger, just as Collins had. I knew they wouldn’t have any trouble seeing me, I could see them well enough and Lucas had a small pair of bird watching binoculars. We only had two sets with us, so Collins had taken the other set.

  I was just about to sit back down when I heard a sound behind me.

  “Psst,” Collins was hissing at me to get my attention.

  I turned and he started pointing to the west. I could see a truck coming up the road. A truck that looked like it was filled with people.

  I turned back to Lucas and Eric. They were waiting for a signal from me. But I didn’t have one for this. We only had a basic set of signals worked out.

  We had one for numbers, easy enough, just hold up some fingers. One for ‘fire again.’ That was me doing a chopping motion, like the Atlanta Braves hand motion. We had one for wait which was two hands held up like a crossing guard stopping traffic. But we did not have one for ‘More of the jerks are on their way, we need to act fast.’ If we did, I wonder what sign language we would have used. Maybe me acting like I was punching myself in the head?

  Instead, I did what came naturally. I yelled.

  “Run!” I shouted. “Take the path we took!”

  Luckily, I had the foresight not to yell where to run. Unless they knew where we were, they wouldn’t know where to look. Over the gunfire, the sniper likely hadn’t heard the glass shatter. And, there was a small bank between the two buildings. They couldn’t see the front door of the Taco Bell from their vantage point.

  I watched Eric and Lucas take off running. They didn’t know what was coming, but they trusted my judgement enough for that. Only, they didn’t take the path through the woods. They belted right in front of the shops. They took the quickest route.

  I immediately swung my rifle off of my back and went to the wall, right where I had watched the sniper shoot before. I thought Collins did the same. I shot my first round.

  “Low. Raise the front of the barrel an inch.” I heard him shout.

  I looked over and he was watching through his binoculars. I’d found out later he saw where the dust rose when it had hit the stucco wall.

  I racked the bolt and loaded the next cartridge. I took his advice and slowly raised the front of my barrel. I watched through the sights as I pulled the trigger of the rifle.

  I heard someone yell right below that distracted me. Before I could refocus, I heard gunfire coming from the sniper again. I looked and saw muzzle flashes.

  “Down,” I shouted.

  He knew where we were, but it didn’t matter. Our people were below us now.

  “Go back,” I shouted to Collins. “They’re down there.”

  He immediately started going. I, on the other hand, made a short detour. When I got to the spot Collins had been in, I racked the bolt one more time and fired a shot at the truck. I don’t know exactly where it hit, but I knew I’d hit it. I heard a metallic thunk before the truck swerved and abruptly stopped.

  I watched for a second as I saw people jumping out of the bed and from the cab. There had to be eight or more, but I didn’t stick around to count.

  I bolted for the ladder. By the time I reached the bottom, I saw the infected from earlier lying dead on the ground. Eric and Lucas were covered in spatter.

  “Could have warned us they were back here,” Lucas said.

  “I figured they were better to fight than the truck full of guys with guns coming right now,” I said back. “Let’s go.”

  While it did mean shutting ourselves off from this way inside the wall in the future, we managed to bar the door shut using Lucas’s crowbar. Eric jammed it into the space where the lock closes and shoved it into the door jam. While he held it in place, Lucas used a big rock to hammer it in.

  Once they learned about the rest of the jerks coming after us in the truck, it didn’t take long to get them into gear. W
e managed to get the door jammed just in time, too. Once we started jogging away, we heard them banging on the door trying to get to us. Had Eric and Lucas not jammed it shut, we probably would have been shot.

  We followed the path that the wall made. Eric stayed jogging in the front at a quick pace the entire time. I’m glad he did because it set the pace for the rest of us to follow. Within minutes we were on a set of houses that had been burnt to the ground. The wall stayed mostly on the road, but in one spot, cut through some backyards. Once we had crossed the yards, I remembered where we were.

  During my last trip through the badlands, I hadn’t come this way, but I knew where I was. I had a friend who used to live near here. I ran a little faster and motioned for Eric to follow me instead.

  When the wall took a turn down a road, we took the opposite direction. This time, I can actually tell you the name of the road, unlike the last two. We were on Tuggle Hill road. The wall looked like it snaked its way to the east to go around Tuggle Hill. We, on the other hand, were headed west, deeper into the badlands.

  Every house we passed was burnt to the ground. Some were still partially standing though. With the state of the houses, it was a little hard to tell exactly where I was. I knew the house in particular I wanted, but I was hoping I would still recognize it.

  Once we were running past the driveway of it, I did recognize the house I was looking for. I came to a sudden stop and stared for a solid five seconds before Eric asked, “What is it?”

  “Give me a sec,” I told him. “I’m trying to make sure this is it.”

  “Hurry,” Lucas said looking behind him. “Just in case they’re coming.”

  I peered hard and noticed it. Beside the house was a three-foot-tall goose covered in melted plastic.

  “Yup,” I said smiling. “This is the one.”

  I ran up the driveway and past the house. It wasn’t the house in particular I was after, it was behind the house. If they were following us, and they saw our path, they would know where we had to end up. But this way, we could throw them off our trail.