"Psst, hey Adrian, wake up man," came a whisper from the tent entrance. Adrian did not stir.
Cesar crept over and gave him a nudge on the shoulder.
"Wake up man, I'm fuckin' tired. It's your turn for watch duty," rasped Cesar.
"Alright, alright, gimme a minute," Adrian said with a yawn.
Adrian checked his wristwatch. 1:00 am.
"Alright, see you at sunrise," said Adrian.
Their camp site could have been like any other they had occupied within the course of the last 2 months. Some clearing in the middle of a godforsaken forest, but at least it wasn't anywhere near a major population center. More population meant more of everything. More food, more water, more medicine. More weapons. More ammunition.
More survivors.
And more of them.
Adrian rummaged through his pack, and picked out a can at random for breakfast. He couldn't tell what the contents of the can were in the dark, but he was hoping for peaches. He got pears instead. Still, no reason to complain. He unscrewed the cap from his thermos and filled the cap with coffee, and drank it quickly. No point in trying to savor cold, stale coffee. Putting fresh batteries in his night vision binoculars, he checked his .22 and settled in for his 6 hour shift.
Damn, He thought. We're going to need more batteries soon.
He tried to focus all of his attention on the treeline, but his mind kept drifting back to Before. He found himself wondering what became of his favorite bands, writers, poets, and actors. Old friends, family, co-workers, ex-girlfriends. Were they alive? Dead? A little of both?
Three uneventful hours passed before he spotted movement to his right, about 150 yards out. He tensed up and began to reach for his weapon. When it burst from the treeline, the shot was tempting, but pointless. Some fresh venison would be exquisite, but they were already pushing the limits of what they could carry on their backs, and it would be a shame to eat some and waste the rest by leaving it. Besides, he didn't want to eat too much before walking all day.
The rest of his watch passed without incident, and when his alarm chimed quietly, he went to the tent to rouse Cesar.
"Hey, wake up, time to move out."
Nothing. He walked over and kicked him in the leg. That did the trick.
"Ow! Fuck man, no need to get violent," complained Cesar.
"Sometimes it's the only answer. Come on, get up. We need to get packed up and move out," said Adrian.
Cesar emerged from the tent to find Adrian studying the map.
"So, where to next jefe?" inquired Cesar.
"There's a good sized town about 20 clicks northeast of us. If we go north about 4 miles, we should come across a little two lane blacktop that we can follow to the town."
"What size is good sized?" asked Cesar.
"About 20,000 people according to the map," said Adrian.
"Heh, right. 'People'," scoffed Cesar, adding air quotes to the last word.
"Yeah, well anyway, let's get everything squared away and start moving. We're burning daylight," said Adrian.
They broke down the tent and packed their gear, and in five minutes they were proceeding north through the woods. They traveled in silence for the most part, keeping a keen eye and ear on their surroundings. About an hour later, they reached the road Adrian had mentioned on the map, and proceeded east, making sure to stay in the cover of the drainage ditch. Occasionally they would pass abandoned vehicles on the road, paying little attention to them. Unless the all of the doors were closed. Those were the ones you had to be careful around, especially if the windows were down. Sometimes the people who were bitten would die in their cars, with their seat belts on. An open window and a victim careless enough to pass too close was all it took to add one more to their numbers.
After proceeding three miles down the road, they saw the tower sign of a middle-of-nowhere gas station 300 yards in front of them. They moved behind a small pickup truck that was halfway in the ditch. The doors were open.
"Alright, let's stow our gear here and check it out. Maybe there's something we can use in there," said Adrian.
"Sounds good to me," said Cesar.
"Okay, eyes on and stay frosty. Hand signals only from here on out. No use giving Zed anything to listen to."
Adrian considered himself lucky that he found another survivor who was a fellow veteran, even if he was from the Marine Corps (Adrian was Army...some rivalries never die, even when everything else is), so at least they were both trained in nonverbal battlefield communication.
The climbed out of the ditch up to the road, scanned their sectors, and cautiously proceeded towards the gas station with their weapons raised, being careful to stay away from any abandoned cars.
Adrian signaled Cesar to stop, then motioned towards the ground with an open palm.
He brought his binoculars to bear on the gas station. In the front were two gas pumps, plus a diesel pump for trucks near the side of the store. It was just a little mom-and-pop venture, not part of any major chain. Various signs were plastered in the windows:
LOW LOW PRICES ON BEER, CIGARETTES, AND SODA!
LOTTERY TICKETS SOLD HERE
BUY ANY 3 QUARTS CASTROL MOTOR OIL, GET ONE FREE!
No more gas here. Go east for evac. God be with you.
From what he could see through the windows, the little shop appeared to be picked clean as if by ravenous buzzards, although he saw no signs of violence. The owners had probably packed what they could and abandoned the place when the gasoline ran out.
Adrian pointed at his eyes, made a square motion with his index fingers, pointed left with his thumb, and then motioned forward to the gas station
Let's move up, you watch the windows to the left of the door.
They moved forward, weapons up. When they reached the gas pumps, Adrian motioned for them to stop once gain. He turned to Cesar, and pointed to the ground with his index finger and made a circular motion, and pointed towards the right corner of the building
Clear the perimeter, move counterclockwise around the building. Go!
The moved around the outside of the building, checking all windows. When they arrived back at the front, Adrian pantomimed a door opening motion, and pointed right with his thumb.
Clear the store, you cover the right side.
They entered the store, and it was indeed as bare as it had appeared from a distance. They moved from aisle to aisle, each one as bare as the last. Even in the midst of a crisis, could not imagine why the entire inventory would be cleared out. Food and other supplies were understandable, but even all the little toys and useless knick-knacks were absent. Perhaps people needed something, anything, to remind them of how things were Before. As for Adrian, anything leftover that wasn't edible or couldn't be used to "kill" Zed was just a painful reminder of the way things would never be. He didn't keep any old family photos, or keepsakes, or heirlooms. That was all dead weight, part of a past that no longer mattered. He would forgo people as well if he didn't have to depend on them to survive.
They continued clearing the store, and converged on the single restroom in the back of the store, adjacent to the beer cooler.
What I wouldn't do for a cold beer right about now..., Adrian thought.
Adrian looked at Cesar, and made a hook with his index finger.
Be ready to fire.
Adrian slowly pushed the door open, pointing his .22 through the opening. The first thing he noticed was the smell.
"Dios mio, that is rank!" said Cesar, plugging his nose. Adrian had to try not to gag.
There was a corpse of a man who appeared to be in his mid 30's handcuffed to the railing near the toilet, a rather nasty looking bite mark on its arm. The corpse wasn't trying to kill them, so Adrian had guessed that this poor soul had been bitten by an animal of some type, but the people who saw the bite weren't taking any chances. He could only guess there was some sort of police officer involved in this mans fate due to the handcuffs.
"Alright, this place is dry. We're clear, let's get out of here and keep moving towards that town. We're burning daylight," said Adrian.
Adrian was almost right. The place was dry, of supplies or anything useful at least. As they were leaving, the torso of a corpse was dragging itself out from behind the counter, feral moans escaping from its decaying mouth. Although this once-human was out to kill them, the men were not too worried about it.
"Cesar, do the honors?"
Cesar nodded, and walked towards the undead thing, and leveled the muzzle of the silenced .22 at the forehead of the beast.
"Descansa en paz, amigo," he said with a tinge of perhaps sadness or regret, and put a slug through what was once a human brain, and then picked up the expended shell casing and put it in his pocket.
"Alright," said Adrian. "Stay frosty, there could be more."
What far too many people seemed to not know about Zed was the daisy chain effect of the moaning sound that most of them made. When one of them moaned, another nearby would hear it, and in turn would moan, and so on and so forth, so one undead corpse had the potential to attract every zombie within several miles. Adrian checked his watch. 8:15 am. They proceeded outside, went back to the pickup to grab their gear, and walked east.
