scent. I think the flesh had quit putrefying and had dried out substantially. They really were beginning to look like big pieces of walking beef jerky. On the streets they were walking with a stiffer gate. They also seemed tougher.
They started to break through after several hours. Truthfully, we were going crazy waiting for the inevitability of the breach. When the boards over the office windows began to break, it finally gave us something to do. I used up all of my bullets in an effort to stop them, but with each zombie KILLED; a new one would pull the dead one out-of-the-way and try again. After I was out of ammunition I used a heavy wrench to bash in their skulls. That lasted for nearly an hour before they broke in through the back door.
We sprinted out of the front office. Eric and Michelle were ahead of me and Sarah. They rushed to the back door. I think they were going to try and force it closed but they were surrounded so fast that they vanished just 5 feet in front of me. Sarah and I dove into the jeep and slammed the vehicle's door.
Looking through the vehicle's vision slits, we could see that the zombies were still being drawn to the spot where Eric and Michelle had been. We sat quietly inside the jeep for several minutes while the zombies milled around the shop. The Sarah shouted, “OH MY GOD! MICHELLE!” Rising from where they had fallen, Michelle and Eric stood up. The flesh all over their bodies had been ripped to shreds, blood soaking every square inch of their corpses. Their eyes were cloudy white as they turned towards Sarah's scream.
As the undead began thudding their fists against the armored jeeps I jumped into the front seat and started the engine. I set the transmission into gear and slowly began pushing the jeep forward into the closed garage doors. The jeep firmly pressed its mass into the door until the garage door guide wheels popped loose from their tracks and the door collapsed.
I continued moving the jeep slowly through the newly created opening and into a swarm of zombies at least ten deep. I left the jeep in low gear and just slowly powered through the mob. When a clear space opened up to the front, I stomped on the gas and shot away as quickly as I could. I had to keep the speed down in order to dodge the heavy volumes of undead that were making their way through the streets in the direction of the shop.
We continued driving for another twenty minutes before coming to a quiet stretch of road surrounded by overgrown fields. Sarah was quiet and distant as I stopped and shut off the engine. I grabbed some food and water from out supply stashed in the jeep and sat back to relax. I tried my laptop and found a good Wi-Fi signal, so, “here I am.”
Settling Down
Sarah and I have settled into a new home. It's been several months since the power went out and we are only now beginning to rebuild a communication network
After we lost the garage with Eric and Michelle, Sarah and I just trolled the streets and neighborhoods in the jeep. We would raid the convenience stores during the night for food and park somewhere under the shade during the day. We used the pedal station that Eric installed more and more. Gas was getting hard to find and the quiet nature of pedal system that helped us avoid drawing zombies made it ideal power source for moving the jeep.
We continued to scout for a new place to call home. The hardware and grocery stores had massive hordes of zombies massed around them. It was obvious that there were survivors inside, but with the zombies hordes and presumably strong barricades, we would never be able to make our way in. Along the way we did raid a small run down pawn shop, stocking up on ammo and an assortment of weapons and tools.
Eventually we spotted a potential new safe house, a farm supply store. Around the entire property was a strong metal fence with only one entrance. It happened to be locked with a simple padlock. The building itself was built out of cinder block and quite large. The main entrance was also barred with heavy gates. Along the side of the building there was a large roll up door. The property looked clear of undead.
We backed the jeep up to the gate and cut the lock with bolt cutters. Sarah opened the gate up wide enough for the jeep to back in then quietly hopped out, closed the gate and ‘locked' it back up with a roll of heavy gauge wire.
We drove around the building looking for a suitable entrance before we came back to the front doors. With both of us wrenching on heavy duty crow bars we managed to split the lock on the entrance gates. With the doors opened we immediately smelled a variety of scents; Grass seeds, chemicals, AND ANIMALS. We could also here scratching and rattling noises from inside the store.
We entered the store leaving the jeep in the entrance serving as a barrier in case any zombies tried to assault us from the rear. We both carried high caliber pistols. Cautiously we scouted the store, remaining together to provide mutual cover and to avoid shooting each other by mistake. We discovered the source of the scratching and rattling noises. There were cages of chickens, rabbits, two goats and several young pigs. They were out of food and water. They were listless, but alive.
***
The place is truly awesome. We've spent many weeks turning our farm store into an island amid a sea of death. We started first by putting up additional fencing on the exterior property fence to hide our activities inside from zombies wandering in the area. If we were seen and the zombie called out to draw more in, we would quickly take him out with a .22 rifle, and then lay low until any zombies drawn by the original call continued on.
Once the visual barrier was up, we braced the fences with the various earthen materials that were stored on the lot. Hopefully the mass of earth on our side of the fence would resist a mass of zombies pressing their rotted corpse against the fence. After that, we built the gardens. It was a pretty extensive garden set up actually. Not only did we have to feed ourselves, but the animals we'd found in the store as well.
Inside the store, we made ourselves as comfortable as we could. We found a surprising amount of items that didn't fit within the farm store category of goods. There was a comfortable display of furniture made from “rustic” wood. There were generators that we could have used for power, but we opted to rig up a series of solar panel kits to provide power for cooking, electronics and a dehumidifier that we used to generate clean drinking water.
Speaking of water, the store was even stocked with a well drilling kit. We used it to tap into the ground water beneath the store.
We're also building a methane generator, based on designs we found inside in the store's small book and magazine area.
The methane is necessary for our new vehicle. The store has a bucket loader that we've converter into a zombie elimination vehicle. Aside from the basic vehicle modifications that we've made in the past to keep us safe from the zombie hordes, we have also hooked up several farm cutting implements to the front loader's hydraulics. We take it out when the zombies are getting too thick and have begun to press against the fence. Once we get the rig out of the gate, we drive it around and chop off their heads with the farming attachments. After that, we move their corpses into piles to create barriers at key intersections.
***
The other survivors in the area are networking with us, sending out contact teams to set up a new wireless Internet and to trade basic goods. Our seeds have gone a long way towards buying security and comfort. We've strengthened the outer fence and moved the animals outside to forage and fertilize the lot around the store. Inside, we've set up secure living areas for ourselves and for other survivors that find the way here and decide to stay.
I'll tell the story of our new guests at a later time.
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