“This ends now!” #zombie

{I will be posting only once a week on Wednesday.  This new schedule will begin next week. 
{Thank you to everyone for fallowing along, I hope that all of you will stay with me for this journey.

“DEACON, IT’S JUST A HONDA. YOU CAN OUT RUN IT EASY!”  Dave says. 

“This ends now!”  Deacon responds calmly.

He pulls back the bolt to chamber a round in the rifle.  He presses the parking break down and cranks the wheel, sliding the truck so that his door will open towards the oncoming car.  Before the truck comes to a complete stop, Deacon opens the door and jumps out.  Everything appears to be moving in slow motion.  Deacon raises the rifle and sprays the Honda with a barrage of .308 caliber bullets.  The first shot hits the windshield of the car, shattering it.  Deacon’s aim is not as good as it would be with the smaller rifle, the rounds however, still find their mark.  After emptying the magazine, he mechanically drops it out of the gun onto the deserted street.  He takes another one out of his pocket and slaps it into the bottom of the rifle and chambers it again, reiterating the spray of bullets.  By this time Duke has jumped out of the shot out window and joined him at his side.  The Honda limps to a stop thirty yards away from where Deacon and Duke stand.  Steam is billowing from the holes in the radiator.  The passenger’s side tire is completely flat.  The car is riddled with bullet holes.  Deacon drops the second magazine and slides a third one in, and once again chambers a round.

“Sniper!” #zombie

 Deacon leads the stranger out into the open, towards Deacons silver Peterbilt.  Deacon takes in the numerous walkers closing in.  A runner coming across the parking lot and another coming at them from behind catches his attention.  They are closing in fast.  He unsnaps the strap on his holster, and takes out his pistol.  Just then, the sound of a rifle report.  He turns to see the runner behind them, tumbling.  Without any doubt, he knows that Jaimie took the shot.  The entire place erupts into gunfire, from both the scout cars and the sniper position.  Deacon watches the walkers fall all around them.   

Then across the radio they hear Greg, “This is scout one, IT IS TIME TO GO!  Hauler two get moving and run over as many of those damned things as you can!” 

John’s semi starts moving towards them while everyone else gets into their cars.   The semi passes Deacon and the stranger and circles behind them.  The stranger turns to look behind them. 

“TURN AROUND, STAY FOCUSED ON MY SEMI!”  Deacon yells trying to keep them focused on their destination.

“I think I want to be a shooter.” #zombie

“Wait,” Greg exclaims. 

Deacon turns around to find Jaimie walking to them.  She asks if she could learn to shoot

“I think I want to be a shooter.” 

Greg abruptly asks her, “What about your girls?” 

With her forehead wrinkled, her fear is evident.  She tells them that she trusts them and knows that she will be ok.  Deacon smiles.

 “If that is what you want to do, I’m not going to be the one to tell you that you can’t.  Besides, the more shooters we have, the better the chances of surviving.” 

She half-hardily smiles and walks away.  Deacon resumes walking back to his truck. 

“Wait!”  Greg tells him again. 

“Oh, I thought you were getting me to stop so Jaimie could talk to us.” Deacon tells him. 

Greg then asks, “Why did you send Luke with me?” 

Deacon puts on his welding equipment, without looking up as he tells Greg, “Luke is the only one I trust with your life.  I’m in the semi, so I can’t do it.  He is the next best thing.” 

Deacon returns to working on his truck while Greg stands in bewilderment.  Greg had not thought of the fact he was losing his shooter, but it was obvious Deacon had.  Deacon starts the welder back up, and starts working on his semi again.  Duke lays down by the welding trailer, watching Deacon work.

“Good boy!” #zombie

Deacon and Greg are both taking shots now.  Sitting in the truck Jaimie watches the struck walkers drop.  In between shots, the sounds of distant shots from the others can be heard.  Duke stays right next to Deacon.  Greg looks over at Deacon and both Duke and Deacon appear to have been doing this together their whole lives.  Deacon, so focused almost looks like a soldier in a movie, and Duke moving ever so carefully through the neighborhood.  Their bodies move almost synchronized and both look so serious as if created just for this situation.  Deacon yells to Greg to watch for runners.  He motions for Jaimie to pull the truck up as he is getting low on bullets.  She pulls up next to him and he pulls out a shotgun, fills his pockets with shells and slings the shotgun over his shoulder. He then picks up the case holding his dad’s rifle.  Taking it out of its case, he slaps a magazine in to the bottom, pulling back the charging handle he, and begins firing rounds again. 

Shooting at the zombies from both sides was putting a hell of a dent in the flood of walkers that were on top of Luke and the scavenging party when they arrived.  The undead were dropping fast now.  Greg and Deacon were using everything they could find for cover, trees, parked cars, and retaining walls.  They started with almost thirty walkers and a handful of runners.  They were down to eight walkers.  The runners were hiding, making it a little harder to count them.  Deacon’s second rifle runs out of rounds and he lays it down in the grass.  He swings his shotgun around and holds the butt of the gun firmly in his shoulder, continuing towards the stranded party.  Almost everybody is out of bullets. Deacon and Duke move faster now.  With a little help they finish off the last of the eight left and turn their attention to the runners.  Walking up a hedge row, Duke explodes with a fierce bark behind Deacon.  Deacon swings around, with the readied shotgun just as the last runner lunges.  Deacon pulls the trigger twice. 

“Good boy!”  Deacon softly tells Duke as he reaches down to pet him on the head.

 

“Hold on!” #zombie

The last post was the last to be in order.  The rest of the posts will be excerpts throughout the book.  I want to take this time to thank everyone for being so supportive in this endeavor,

They make it into the city, all hell breaks loose on the CB. 

It sounds like Luke, “JOHN WE ARE PINNED IN!  THERE ARE TWO MANY OF THEM!”  

Deacon picks up the CB microphone, “LUKE WHERE ARE YOU AT?”  

Luke gets on and tells them that they are trapped on “Forest and 9^th”, ten miles from where Deacon and Greg are.  Deacon assures Luke that they will be there as soon as they can, and to hold them off for as long as possible.  Thick, bellowing, black smoke erupts from the tail pipe on Deacon’s Dodge. 

“Hold on!”  Greg tells Lana.

Greg gives his Challenger everything he can just to keep up with Deacon.  They arive to where the scavenging group is, they can see the semis.  Donavan’s door is wide open. 

“OH MY GOD!”  Jaimie exclaims. 

Looking through the windshield, they can’t see the cars through the walkers.  They can see a hole next to John’s semi about a hundred feet out.  Deacon knows that this is where his people are pinned down.  Deacon instructs Jaimie that as soon as he stops, she is to get in to the driver’s seat.  Greg tells Lana the same thing. 

He commands Duke to stay in the truck with Jaimie.  Duke’s tail stops wagging as if disappointed.  Deacon gets on the radio, tells Luke that they are coming in from the south, and then tells Greg its time.  They both get out of their vehicles, and grab their guns. 

“DUKE NO!”  Deacon yells as Duke jumps out of the truck. 

It’s too late to spend any time trying to get him in.  He thinks to himself that and at least he hasn’t had enough time with him to really get attached.  Deacon tells Duke to stay close, then shoulders his rifle and takes aim.

"He lays his pistol next to his bed" #zombie

Deacon asks him how he knew.  Dave goes on to explain that he had been watching him the last few days, and already figured out that he is more concerned with the wellbeing of the others, then his own.  He finishes by ordering Deacon to go and get some sleep.  Deacon smiles at Dave as he picks up his guns off the table.  He holsters his pistol.  Carrying his rifle, he thanks Dave as he leaves him to watch over their home. 

Making it down to his room, he lays his pistol next to his bed and leans his rifle against the wall.  He lays down only to hear people coming down the hall and then recognizes Cherise’s voice.  There is a knock at his door, he pretends to be asleep so that she will leave him alone.  She is a little more than he can take at this point.  His pretense works and as he lays there, thoughts of the day’s events swarm through his mind.  Eventually he becomes emotionally drained, falling asleep.

“It sounds like your dad was in intelligence." zombie

Dave questions further, asking if his dad was military.  Deacon then explains that he doesn’t really know much about his dad outside of family life.  All he really knows is that his dad worked for the government.  Deacon pulls the letter that his father had left for him, showing it to Dave.  Dave reads the letter, folds it back up, and gives it back to Deacon. 

“It sounds like your dad was in intelligence. Why don’t you come and find me after the movie, I’ll take the night watch.  You have another big day ahead of you.”  Dave says as he turns his wheelchair around leaving Deacon to his own thoughts.

After the movie ends, Deacon hears the people leaving the auditorium.  Thinking to himself that there is not any way he will be able to get any sleep.  He decides that he will let Dave sleep, assuming that Dave is already asleep.  Contrary to his thoughts, the door opens up, and Dave joins Deacon in the tower. 

“You weren’t going to come and get me, were you,” Dave asks him sarcastically, as he already knows Deacon’s answer.

“Where did you learn to shoot like that?” #zombie

They filter out heading towards one of the auditorium-like rooms.  Some break off to round the others up, bringing them to the auditorium.  There is an excited hum as several conversations about how it is such a relief to experience some normalcy now. 

            During the commotion to the auditorium, Deacon sees Cherise trying to get his attention. Deacon immediately decides to go off on his own, telling Greg that he is going to head up to the observation tower to take a shift watching the road.  Turning around he goes downstairs, gathering up his guns and gear. 

Entering the “Tower”, he sits down at a table.  He looks out over the lake, and the mountains.  All of which seem to be painted a pinkish, orange-ish hue by the sunset.  He starts tearing down his guns to clean them.  The door opens and Dave comes in, asking Deacon what he is doing.  Deacon tells him that he is getting ready for another day. 

“Who taught you to clean your guns like that,” Dave asks him. 

“My dad did, but it was just after we had been hunting, and shooting.  Now, it seems I’m using them every day just to stay alive.  I don’t want to have anything to jam up while I’m fighting those things!”

“Where did you learn to shoot like that?”

“I have shot since I was a kid, but after my fiancée died my dad and I started shooting competitively.  I guess my dad thought it would help keep my mind off things.”

“I don’t need anybody telling me what to do!” #zombie

Greg then asks John who still looks angry, if he and Donavan want to go to pick up trailers and bring them back, preferably any trailers that have to do with food. 

Greg cautions them not to spend a lot of time doing it, “just grab what you can and run them back.”

 He further advises them to stay on the outskirts of the city, as they don’t have anybody to watch their backs. 

 John wanders off muttering, “I don’t need anybody telling me what to do!”

Donavan then asks if they want him to go and get his semi from the truck stop.  

Dave answers, “Do that on the first run, before you get the attention of those things.”   

Donavan nods his head.  Deacon adds, that after they get the cars, they will meet up with them.  Dave asks the crowd since there is not anything else to discuss how they would feel about a movie.  Jackie tells them that watching a movie is something she didn’t think she would get to do again.

“I hadn’t really put much thought into that, but you are right,” Lana proclaims as she proceeds to agree with Jackie. 

“The next time I’ll let him go,” #zombie

Deacon jumps up, and slams his hands on the table and starts yelling at John, "THE ONLY ONE WHO IS NONESENTIAL HERE IS YOU BECAUSE OF YOUR ATTITUDE!  IF YOU DON’T FIX IT, I WILL FIX IT FOR YOU.  IF YOU WANT SOMEBODY TO BULLY, HERE I AM." 

John moves as if to stand up.  Greg warns him that he wouldn’t do that if he was him.  He then orders Deacon to sit and calm down.  Deacon reluctantly follows Greg’s orders knowing that this is not the place for this.  John tells Greg that he had better put a shorter leash on his dog, or next time somebody was going to get hurt.  Greg tells him to shut his mouth, because the only one that will get hurt will be him.

“The next time I’ll let him go,” Greg sternly promises. 

An uncomfortable silence lingers for a moment until Drake breaks the silence by volunteering to ride shotgun for Jeff.  Greg asks for more volunteers, as they need two more drivers, and two more shooters.  Mike and Jason agree to take a car.  Tyson offers to drive, and Luke volunteers to be his shooter.  Greg says sarcastically that since it is settled, they will go car shopping tomorrow.  Jeff suggests that they should go to dealerships, explaining that he was a car salesman up until this “Disaster” happened and he knows where to look for keys.  It is unanimous that this is the best plan. 

“Do you want to drive or ride shotgun?” #zombie

Deacon explains his idea of using semis to make their runs.  Dave adds that each semi should have two scout cars assigned to the semi.  Deacon recalls how he used the vent in his trailer to get into it.

He poses the question, "What if we did the same thing with the semi-trailers?  The drivers of the semis could climb up onto the trailer, and open a hatch.  They would then use a ladder to get down into the trailers.  Next the people in the scout cars would go into stores, open the dock doors and let the drivers in without posing risk to everyone.” 

Deacon goes on to suggest that the trailers with roll up doors would be better.  They could shut the trailer doors on the dock, without having to pull away from the dock to shut them out in the open. 

John pipes up, volunteering Donavan and himself to drive the semis since that is what they do, as “Deacon is just a delivery driver.”  Greg immediately looks over at Deacon, only to see irritation in Deacon’s body language.  Attempting to defuse the situation, Greg quickly adds that after what he has seen, he would rather have Deacon in his car with him.  He would feel better knowing Deacon was riding shotgun, literally.  Dave suggests that they should go and pick out some fitting cars the very next day.  The group anxiously agrees.

Deacon asks Jeff what he would like to do, “Do you want to drive or ride shotgun?” 

In answer, Jeff tells him that he would rather drive, but he will do whatever they need him to.  John immediately cuts in, looks at Greg, and asks why they are including everyone that is nonessential.  He goes on that they should just make the decisions and tell everyone what they are going to do

"Turning the meeting over to Deacon." #zombie

They begin to eat.  Dave leans over to Deacon and comments that they are going to need to start making runs in order to feed everybody.  Deacon agrees as he watches John.  He continues to watch throughout the meal, surprised at how full of himself, John is.  John sits there acting like he was the one who had saved the day, when in reality they were marooned in the truck stop parking lot.  After dinner Lana and Alicia take the newcomers around, getting them settled into rooms. 

Deacon advises Greg that they need to come up with a plan to keep everybody fed.  Greg sits in thought for a moment, overwhelmed with their new responsibilities of taking care of all these people.  He then announces that they are going to have a meeting in the observation room, for anyone that wants to participate.  They finish cleaning up after dinner and head upstairs. 

Everyone finds a place to sit.  Some are on chairs others are on the floor, and a few are standing.  Dave explain to them that in order to take care of everybody they are going to start going on scavenging runs.  Dave looks at Deacon.  He then tells the group that Deacon has a plan to make more use of their runs, turning the meeting over to Deacon.

"Introductions" #zombie

Dave leans over and tells Deacon that he heard about what had happened today, “Greg says you were a real bad ass.”  

Explaining himself, Deacon informs him that he just did what needed to be done.  Greg stands up, and whistles for everyone’s attention.  He proceeds to tell everybody that they are going to introduce themselves.  He starts of the introduction and they continue around the table, they get to the new people they picked up at Jaimie's.  

“I'm Steve this is my wife Peg, and these are our sons Shane, Andy, and Craig.  Craig’s wife, Shannon, and their kids.  Tanner is the oldest and Chris and Sadie, are the twins.” 

Cherise is up.  She introduces her little boy, Jordan, and her sister, Megan.  Next, is John’s turn.  He pretty much gets up and tells everybody how they should all be thankful he is there.  The guy sitting next to him is Donavan, John’s right hand man.  Deacon watches as the tall, almost sickly thin looking man stands up.  He is wearing a dirty, western style shirt, and denim pants.  He informs everyone that he is also a truck driver.  A lady named Jackie stands up and introduces her husband, Rich, and herself. 

Next is a young man, "I’m Mike and this is my friend, Jason."    

Then a young couple stands up and introduces themselves as Tyson Amanda, and Amanda’s brother Drake.  A few more people stand up introducing themselves and their children.  The last one to introduce himself is Luke.