All The Other Kids With The Pumped Up Kicks

Will was allowed to drive again, and he felt pretty confident about it this time. They loaded up some extra gas cans, moved the barrel barricade, pulled out of the fort and parked the truck, ran back in and re-barricaded, then went back out through the front gate. This way Kat and Eve weren't stuck re-barricading themselves while Eve was still operating with a broken arm.

Travis sat next to him, calmly giving him directions up to the highway while Amanda and Ben rode in the truck bed, the truck topper having been left behind for the time being. Once they reached the highway, though, Travis took over driving, and Will joined the other two in the back.

They pulled up to the first blockage, a minivan and a couple of sedans that had struck each other at low speed. Travis stopped the truck but kept the motor running, and Amanda stood up on the roof of the truck with her bow and arrows ready. She had learned gunshots would bring the biters out, so while she carried a gun in a holster on her right hip, she preferred her compound bow.

Ben motioned to Will and they went to work putting the blocking vehicles into neutral and pushing them off the road. After the last sedan rolled unevenly off to the side and there was enough space for Joe's truck to pass through, Ben and Will hopped back into the back of the truck, Amanda sat down with them, and Travis slowly pulled forward.

“We just need to clear a wide enough path for a couple vehicles to get back and forth with supplies. When we get up to the hardware store, we'll look for another truck with the keys in it and a tolerable amount of mess. We may have to jump it or refuel it, but we're prepared,” Ben told Will.

“Can I drive one of the trucks home?”

“Next time. This time we're going to be running late.”

Will shivered, worried about losing the daylight that the biters avoided.

“They don't mind the cold,” he said. “On the way to the Fort, we found one sleeping on the ground, no blanket, just outside in the November air.”

“I wasn't sure if they slept,” Ben said. “But single biters sleeping out in the open are not going to be able to keep warm over the winter. First strong freeze...”

“I hope so,” Will said fervently. “But then again, the way they heal, come spring thaw...”

This time it was Ben who shivered.

“Time to shut up and move cars,” Amanda said, pointing ahead to the next blockage, a truck on its side.

“Come on, Muscles,” Ben said as Travis pulled to a stop. This time Travis hopped out to help, leaving the truck door open and the engine running. Amanda climbed up to stand on the roof again, vigilantly.

They rocked the truck up on its tires, it was still bouncing a bit when Amanda hissed “Ben, confirm, directly south. Single.”

Ben hopped up on the hood as Travis motioned to Will to be silent. The two of them pushed the truck quickly onto the shoulder.

Behind them Ben kneeled on the hood, below Amanda's firing level, and searched where she was pointing with binoculars.

“Definite biter,” he said. “Take it down.”

She shot before he even finished the sentence. Will strained to see where she was aiming and saw the figure stagger as a second arrow struck it, then fall as a third hit it, three feathered spikes centered in the creature's chest.

“That may not kill it,” Travis said quietly to Will as Ben and Amanda searched for any more nearby. They'd found over the last couple of weeks that the changed creatures were solitary; they'd never found a biter with another biter it wasn't trying to kill and eat. “If it bleeds enough fast enough, or if she got more than one in the heart, maybe. It will stop it long enough for us to be away before it heals enough to rise, though.”

The trip to Home Depot continued on slowly; stopping, moving obstructions, Amanda ever watchful and swift with her bow if she saw something and Ben confirmed it was a Red Flu rioter. A pedestrian overpass that had been damaged and fallen across the highway caused the biggest slowdown while they cleared away enough to fit the truck through. They used an off ramp and came back to the Crosstown Highway via the on ramp to avoid an overpass, Ben being of the feeling bridges could be a dangerous place to get trapped so they should avoid being on them if they could.

The small group, sweaty and tired, arrived at Home Depot at last well after noon. “We won't have much time, so if you want to go to Target and get some things, then Amanda can go with you,” Ben told Will.

“First see if there's any vehicle here with keys inside that will be driveable,” Travis said. “Drive that up by the doors, and grab what you can in an hour and a half, no more. It's nearly two, and the sun will set before five this evening.”

“We'll buzz if we need you,” Amanda said, tapping the walkie talkie hanging from her belt. These were set to be silent, but had a vibrate function.

“Same to you but more of it,” Ben said.

“Same to your face, dumbass.”

“Same to your mom!”

Travis sighed. “I'm sorry,” he told Will. “They never grew up.”

Travis and Ben swept the hardware store to be sure no surprises that could kill them waited there, then set to loading the truck up with supplies. Amanda and Will searched the few cars sitting in the parking lot and found a bright red minivan with the keys laying on the ground just outside the driver side door, mixed in with some scattered shreds of bloody clothing.

“Poor bastard,” Will whispered, and Amanda patted his shoulder. The van started right up, so they drove it up to the front doors of the Target sharing a parking lot with Home Depot.

“We go in together,” Amanda said. “Keep your weapon in your hand.” She indicated the iron-topped hoe, the one Will had grabbed to replace the one he'd broken killing the zombie in the visitor's center.

The aisles were clear of animals or humans. Housewares was remarkably clear of damage, though the food aisles were trashed. The freezers had been off for more than a week now, so there was definitely a smell, though the cold temperatures had kept it from being too overpowering. Most of the food was gone from the fridges and freezers in the grocery area, anyway.

The doors to the storage area were broken and hanging, and Will pulled up short. He held up his hand like he was in high school still trying to get his teacher's attention. Amanda stealthily came to stand beside him and he pointed.

There was a smell they couldn't place coming from the darkness there – heavy, musky, a little sickly sweet. She motioned for him to be still and crept forward until her eyes could adjust to the darkness.

She signaled to Will again to be still, and moved silently forward into the darkness, staying where he could see her. Before she could move out of his line of sight, she motioned him forward, stopping him as he reached the darkness just inside the broken doors.

From here, once his eyes adjusted, he could still see her as she moved farther into the darkness. She made no noise as she climbed up onto a counter, peering farther back.

Huddled near the rear of the room, behind some pallets of boxes, she could just discern a crouched huddle of sleeping Red Flu rioters. There were five that she could make out, potentially more inside the huddle. They were curled into a sort of sitting fetal position, their bodies all angled inwards and their backs out. Amanda was reminded of the segments of an orange for some reason. Their backs moved in almost a flutter as they breathed.

Breathing slowly and carefully, she climbed down and motioned to Will to follow her out of there and to the front of the store.

“I think we have trouble,” she said as soon as they stepped outside. “There's at least five biters in there, sleeping in the back room.”

“I thought they eat each other,” Will said, disturbed.

“That's the trouble,” she said. “Killing each other off gives us more of a chance they'll die out fast. Assuming no one else ever gets Red Flu.”

“Should we go tell Ben and Travis?”

“Yeah, because we're not going to be able to kill them off alone, there's too many. And they need to see this.”

“We're going to kill them? Today?”

“Sooner the better. We need the supplies, and they'll attack as soon as they wake up.”

Will nodded. Though the food aisles were trashed, the cans were intact. They needed the food before the roads became impassible and before more people came to the Fort.

“Ok. I'm ready.”

“Follow orders,” she said sternly, and he nodded again. “Ok, let's go get the dudes. And get set up for a much bigger battle than we're used to.”

I'm worn out - here's a crayon picture of the Aubrey's.

Go Team Aubrey

The trio set up in the officer's quarters closest to the commander's quarters for the moment.

“I want to set up down in the quartermaster's office,” Travis said. “It's close to the workshops and it's a good place to set up to keep supplies.”

“Of course you do,” Ben said. “You are the quartermaster.”

“Uh... thank you. But I'll still need to get a good accounting of our supplies, which we'll need to really start bringing in, and figure out rationing, and I can do that best down there, I think.”

“There are bathrooms not far from there,” Amanda said. “We can all set up down there. No big.”

“Yeah, but there's no bedrooms, so no privacy, just the office and a lot of storage,” Travis said. “And the storage rooms don't have heat right now.”

“Until you get your propane death bomb heaters,” Ben said, and Amanda slugged him absentmindedly, just out of habit. He patted her arm back.

“I'll figure it out,” Travis said, his brows lowered and jaw squared.

“Well, duh,” Amanda said. “You're the brains of this outfit.”

He gave her a quickly suppressed look of surprise. It wasn't a way he thought of himself, sitting here in the officer's quarters with his two college-educated friends.

“So I will take Dredd Scott's quarters, right across from you guys. Right? One room with a fireplace for warmth, close enough to the bathrooms beneath the officer's quarters, and you two can set up in the quartermaster's office.”

“You could take the guardhouse, and be the constable,” Ben said helpfully. Amanda gave him a curdling look.

“You could take the laundress's quarters and wash my socks,” she said.

“I'm a ranger,” he said, doing his best to look thoughtful, slightly unwashed, and heroic; at least the unwashed part was easy right now.

“Whatever, Drizzt.”

“Aragorn!”

“You know what, hot food at Eve's. Hot. Food. That we can eat. I am not arguing with you over which lame fictional bowman you are, Katniss.”

“Aragorn is real,” Ben whispered grumpily. They finished laying out their inflatable foam mats and their sleeping bags, and headed over to Hot. Food. with the Aubreys.

They spent some time setting up the radio down at the quartermaster's office, with the solar panel powering it up on the roof. All three bedded down in the officer's quarters for the evening, but parked their bikes and their trailers inside the long storage room next to the quartermaster's office. The next morning they replenished the wood for the Aubreys and moved a barrel of water down to the commissary, where the office was. Other barrels of water were moved to the wood barracks bathroom, which the Aubreys used, and to the bathroom below the officer's quarters.

Eve Aubrey made them breakfast of left over frybread from the night before and powdered eggs from the supplies left behind by Joe Raymond. She had hot coffee and sugar there too, though Katrin and Val chose some Tang, also left behind by Joe Raymond, instead.

“Any plans in place already for supplies and fortification?” Travis asked over breakfast, right to the point.

“We found some razor wire,” Eve said. “We are planning to set that out in rows around the Fort. I don't think they feel pain, so it won't prevent them from coming through, but it should help tangle them up pretty good.”

“I went down to the marina and brought up all our stuff we'd left behind when we first got here,” Will said. “But I haven't gone through the boats for supplies.”

“Waste of time for the resources we'd get,” Travis said. “I wouldn't worry about that.”

“Mr Joe had a truck, it's by the gun shed,” Katrin said.

“Mr Joe die,” Val explained. “I have cheeses.”

Eve patted Val's leg. “There's some gas for the truck in the gun shed,” she said.

“There's a Target and a Home Depot not far from here,” Ben said.

“And a lot of road between here and there in an unknown state of clear,” Amanda said.

“The bikes are good for uncleared road,” Ben said.

“And dog bites, and getting caught in storms, and -” Amanda began.

“We will take the truck, and watch the sky,” Travis said.

“In case they attack by spaceship?” Ben asked, his eyebrows up, and Travis gave him a speaking look.

“For the storm. If Will comes with us -” Travis looked to Eve for permission, and she nodded. “There's four of us. We take the truck, we drive carefully, and that leaves three of us to try and clear the roads enough we have a clear and fast path back and forth from here to Home Depot.”

“We have enough supplies for right now,” Amanda said, and looked to Travis for agreement. “So the focus needs to be on getting what we need to make the Fort safe.”

“I agree,” Travis said. “And I have an idea of how we can quickly raise the total height of the walls where they're low enough to be scaled easily by biters or other people, so we can keep out anything detrimental to the survivors here.”

“How are you doing, Eve?” Ben asked, his face kind and concerned.

“Better. Tired, but better. Pain's manageable and mostly only when I bump the broken arm. I can work here with Katrin on arranging the supplies you brought and making sure there's room for whatever more we will need to bring in. But we'll need water soon.”

“We got that from Coldwater Spring. We have a hand pump,” Will said.

“You're a hand pump,” Katrin whispered, and Val high fived her.

“Good one!” he chuckled.

Eve gave them a warning glare and the two subsided just enough that she turned her gaze back to the trio and Will.

“We're going to end up needing gas, too,” Amanda said, and slugged Ben before he could even comment on her and gas.

“I have a siphon kit,” Travis said. “We can take care of that after we get the Fort... ah, fortified.”

“Amanda has gas,” Ben said under his breath, determined to get it out.

“Good one,” Val whispered to him, and they both fell silent as Eve gave them a stern look.

“There's a pharmacy at Target,” Ben said, trying to sound businesslike and adult again. “Is there anything you need from there ASAP?”

“I need my walker,” Val said. “I hate it wheelchair.”

“If there's time and you see a walker, he needs one,” she said. “We had to leave his behind when we came to the Fort.”

“I like it my wheelchair,” Val amended. “But I need my walker back.”

“We – Joe Raymond and I – grabbed a lot of medical things and medicine at the VA pharmacy,” Will said somberly. “We put most of it in the hospital building.”

“Good,” Travis said, satisfied with that arrangement. “Gary's sending a midwife over as soon as we make sure the Fort is secure, and she and her patients can hole up there. So first, building up the walls and making it harder for biters to reach the walls.”

“Kat and I will do some more arranging in the walls,” Eve said. “I don't think I'm much use in a fight yet, or fast enough to get back inside the walls if she sees something from the Round Tower, or I'd start putting out the razor wire.”

“We can do that tomorrow while Mandy and Travis fix the walls,” Ben said. “And then Gary will send the midwife, and come over himself if he's got his cat. We just need to get as much done as possible before a big snow. Gary's got a snowmobile, but that's just one, and they're loud – if for some reason the biters aren't frozen when it gets colder, it'll draw them.”

“What do you think, Val, when's the storm coming?” Kat asked her brother quietly, and Eve held up her hand to silence the others so she could hear his answer.

“Snow a little night time,” he said. “Snow a little tomorrow. Then big storm coming. Lots of wind. Loud.”

“Ok,” Eve said. “We should have today and tomorrow to get as much done and as many supplies in as we can before the snow really comes.”

“How... how accurate is he?” Travis asked.

“His weather powers are creepy level,” Kat said.

“He's pretty reliable,” Eve agreed. “He's right more than TV weatherpeople were.”

“How weird,” Ben said half under his breath, and Eve stared at him, hard. “There's no more TV weathermen,” he explained.

“Awesome,” Amanda said to Val, who was quiet for a second, then gave her a flirty look beneath his long lashes. “A real superhero – Weatherman.”

“I call tornado on you,” he said, his twitching lip belying his severe tone.

“I will have to be very well behaved, I see,” she said, and he giggled.

Travis's mouth twitched too. Though Amanda could be blunt and even harsh with adults, she was gentle and humorous with children. The change in her demeanor between adult conversation and her open, respectful conversations with children could be disconcerting for those who did not know her as well as Ben and Travis did. He glanced over and saw Ben staring thoughtfully at him and realized Ben had been watching him watch Amanda. Travis dropped his gaze.

“All right, team,” Ben said, cheerfully, giving no hint of anything he might have seen in Travis. “Let's get this party rocking.”

“Go Team Aubrey!” Kat said and put her small fist up. Her family put their fists up against hers.

“Go Team Aubrey!” they said in unison. After a second, the newcomers did the same, putting their fists into the circle too.

“It's the sign for 'A' in sign language,” Kat said importantly, holding her fist up to show Amanda. She studiously avoided looking at Ben.

“Nice!” Ben said, and Kat blushed, just a little.

Frybread, Cheese On Top

Occasional snowflakes drifted down from a blue sky as the trio headed back out on Ford Parkway toward the bridge and the Fort beyond.

“I guess this is that blizzard Gary's going on about,” Ben said.

“Terrifying,” Amanda said.

Down past the Petco near the bridge, Ben brought their small convoy to a complete halt, raising his hand excitedly, then pointing up the side road by the Petco.

A small dog of indeterminate heritage sat in the middle of the road, head cocked, staring at them.

“Hi, puppy!” Ben whispered, his voice high and elated. “Hello, little friend!” He parked his bike and stepped off it, crouching and reaching a hand palm-up toward the dog. The dog began to bark and jump around in place.

Answering growls rose all around them.

“Ahhh... we need to go,” Travis said.

“Angry dogs!” Amanda said, and shoved forward on her bike, trying to move at a walk to not set them off any further.

Another dog came forward around the side of the building, body low to the ground, face pulled back in a snarl. The original smaller dog cocked its head again, then ran behind the snarling dog and mirrored its stance.

A much larger dog stepped out of the broken Petco doors, hackles raised, upper lip pulled back in a meaty, drooling, sneer.

“Angry horse,” Travis whispered.

Ben backed slowly back onto his bike and slowly moved the kickstand up. “I think, when I say go, we... we take the hell off.”

“Ready.” Amanda was already several feet in front of them.

Travis counted at least fifteen dogs inching forward from hiding places and inside the store.

“Go!” Ben shouted, and off the humans went. Within seconds the dogs were bolting after them, some snarling, some perhaps just having a good time chasing bicyclers with their friends.

“Keep Amanda in front, she's too heavy and she'll fall behind!” Travis said, referring to her trailer full of canned goods.

“Fuck... you!” she managed, pedaling harder.

One of the bigger dogs came close enough to snap at Ben's trailer. Travis slowed down enough to end up alongside Ben and allow his trailer to nudge the dog. The dog sat down, tilting its head, as they continued away from it.

The other dogs caught up quickly, swarming past the sitting dog, and it joined the pack at the back. Within moments they were snapping at Ben's and Travis's legs, bikes, and trailers.

“They're not trying to bite us,” Ben said.

“Oh, I think they are!” Travis yelled, shaking a little one off his shoe.

“No. Pedal faster.”

“Fuck... you,” Amanda said, but they each bent lower and put everything into a burst of speed that took them onto the bridge. As they passed over the river, the dogs slowed and stopped, some sitting on the bridge, some standing vigilantly, some turning back completely.

They kept going until they were well out of sight of the dogs, then pulled to a stop at the Pergola Gardens; the gardens were on a smaller road that would connect with a bike trail that led all the way past Coldwater Spring and to the Fort itself.

“Amanda's too heavy,” Ben said, catching his breath and sipping water from his Camelbak.

“Fuck you,” she muttered around the Camelbak straw in her own mouth.

“Ew. You're like a sister to me.”

Travis finished cleaning up the scrape from the small dog's teeth, when it had nipped at his foot. “Yep, it bit me.”

“They weren't trying to attack us,” Ben said.

“Oh, shut up, he probably has rabies now,” Amanda said.

“Unlikely,” Travis said matter-of factly. “You look for rabies when a mammal behaves strangely and in unexpected ways. You can expect dogs to chase bicyclists.”

“I think they were protecting their territory. And their food source,” Ben said. “They stopped chasing when we left their territory.”

“They're holed up in the Petco,” Amanda said. “Makes sense, but we'll have to warn Gary, especially if he's bringing Benjamin through in a cage.”

“We'll have to watch Travis for signs of werewolfery,” Ben said solemnly.

“Or we could just kill him now,” Amanda said with equal solemnity. “Before he turns.”

“A crazed beast in the night, driven by hunger and LUST.” Ben made a face of fear and horror.

“That's you,” Amanda said.

“It's time to go,” Travis said, pulling his sock back in place. “Let's get to safety first, you two can misbehave after that.”

“No fun,” Ben muttered.

Will was watching for them from the Round Tower. He pointed them to the red doors at the front of the Fort, and ran to let them in, since the vehicle gate was again blocked by barrels.

He started to introduce himself when he opened the door, interrupted himself mid-word, and waited instead until everyone was safely inside and the door locked.

“Will Aubrey,” he said, holding his hand out to shake each of theirs in turn.

“Ben Graham,” Ben said. “And this is Amanda Johnson and Travis Green.”

“Are you guys hungry? My mom's cooking. Wild rice soup with Spam in it. And she made fry bread.”

“I am always hungry,” Ben said fervently.

Eve was sitting up in the dining room, now converted into her kitchen. Over the last couple of days as she'd recovered, she'd had Kat and Will bring in various pieces of furniture she thought would help her manage the house better, and had traded out some of the more delicate furniture from the commander's house.

In the now-a-kitchen, she had the yellow hutch from the basement pantry, a long narrow table next to it to use as a work surface, a wood bin in front of one of the built in hutches, and a battered looking table to eat at with benches and space for Val's wheelchair at the end. A sturdy chair sat near the fireplace, and it was here that Eve awaited them, still looking tired and a little sickly, but upright, cooking and directing traffic.

Will waved to his mother, then directed them into the parlor where Val and Katrin were playing; Katrin was playing paperdolls and Val was playing run over paperdolls with Hot Wheels. Here was set up a bookshelf for all the books Will had brought over from the gift shop and the few books, mostly Dresden Files and Katrin's Warriors books about clans of cats, that they'd brought from home; a wing chair for Eve and a rocking chair for Val, and a couple comfortable padded benches. There was a bin for toys near the door, pillows on the window ledges for the cats, and a few small tables for playing cards or doing crafts. Camp lanterns stood on the mantel, as yet unlit since cool winter sunlight was streaming in aplenty.

“My sister Kat and my brother Val,” Will said, gesturing. Eve came to the door of the parlor, dressed in modern clothes but with an old fashioned calico apron covering her from throat to shins.

“Hello,” she said, shaking their hands warmly. “You must be Gary's friends.” Travis felt a a moment of absurdity; all this introducing and welcoming very much like a normal afternoon Before, as if the world outside weren't mostly gone or turned to biters and death.

“Hi,” Ben said, with his characteristic open friendliness. “You must be Mother Eve.”

“Our glorious leader,” Travis said blandly.

She raised an eyebrow at Travis as Amanda stepped forward. “Hi. Amanda Johnson, student teacher, friend of Gary's, I don't know these two idiots.”

“Eve Aubrey. Mother of the Brood – Will, Val, and Katrin. And those two cats being lazy by the fire over there are Cassiopeia and Leah.”

“Aww kitties!” Ben cried, and ran over to meet the pets.

“Where should we put our stuff?” Travis asked Eve.

“Anywhere you like,” she said. “The whole place is currently empty, except for the commander's house. If you want an opinion, the basement here is nice – it's got several rooms and a big kitchen, but no bedrooms. It would be easy to designate bedrooms, though, and put something to sleep on in there. Or the officer's quarters, off on left there.” She gestured. “They already have beds.”

“Beds hard,” Val said. “Need a shushins.”

“Cushions,” Katrin corrected.

“Five shushins.”

“STOP KILLING MY DOLLS,” she said.

“Go ahead and figure out where you want to set up,” Eve said. “And we'll eat when you're done. And call Gary and let him know you're safe,” she added, her tone befittingly maternal for the one Gary referred to as the Mother.

“On it,” Ben said, taking a short break from rubbing Cassie's soft, pure white belly. He pulled the walkie talkie off his belt and pinged Gary.

“I need to sit back down,” Eve said with a soft, apologetic smile, and Will hurried to help her back to her chair in the kitchen.

“Mom's better, but she is still a little sick from being bitten by the zombies,” Katrin said in explanation. “It's not catchy.”

“Should we do anything?” Amanda asked.

“Nah,” Kat said. “Will gives her ibuprofen and stuff.”

“All right, Gary's up to speed,” Ben said. “Let's find a landing pad and get back for dinner!”

“Frybread cheese on top!” Val said happily, and ran over one of Katrin's paperdolls with his Hot Wheels.

We're In The Pipe, Five By Five

Travis Green had made a meticulous plan, but as usual, Ben Graham changed it on the fly, and Travis had followed his lead. Ben had enthusiasm and a certainty of soul that made nay-saying difficult, and Travis, mild and usually quiet, tended to save his conflict energy for serious concerns. Travis lacked the formal education his friends had; he was a skilled handyman and autodidact, but sometimes lacked confidence in his own skills.

Amanda Johnson, the third member of the trio which had been formed originally in kindergarten, paid careful attention to what Travis had to say, but she too tended to follow Ben. Ben had no interest in leading and rarely seemed to realize that was what he was doing, and the other two hardly considered themselves to be following, but Travis knew in practice, that's what the situation was.

They'd planned to be out of town and find some cabin to stay in, according to Travis's roadmap of the apocalypse, as Ben called it, but he'd decided to swing by Gary's apartment first and now they were staying in the Cities and working to help other survivors instead of focusing singly on their own survival. Which was just like Ben – goodhearted, optimistic, and not always completely rational.

“Ok,” Gary said. “You're heading over the Ford Parkway bridge and then going south to the Aubrey Encampment. You'll let me know when you arrive, I'll follow within the week once I have Benjamin the Asshole.” Gary called the Fort the Aubrey Encampment because aside from these three kids, as he saw them, there were few people left he knew he could trust. He'd known them since they were small.  When he'd had a house down along Fairview, Ben had frequently mowed the lawn for him. Benjamin the Asshole Cat was named after Ben, on a suggestion from Amanda a good eight years ago.

“We've packed archery supplies and everything we'd planned to take with us on the bike trip to Utah next year, since we won't be needing it for that anymore,” Amanda said. “And we'll stop at Lunds and get whatever human and cat food we can find, barring any trouble from biters.”

“The biters eat anything that smells like food that they can get their claws on,” Gary said. “There may not be anything but canned goods and dried food. And because it did have food, I am a little worried Lunds is being used as a den.”

“We'll assess when we get there,” Ben said with absolute confidence. “We'll grab a bag of dog food if we can too. We have room on the bike trailers and we may run into a pet dog or something.” His yearning was apparent.

Amanda play-slugged his shoulder. “Poor Ben needs a puppy.”

He play-slugged her back. “Mandy needs some feminine hygiene products.”

“That doesn't even make sense, you dick.”

“It was a pretty bad comeback,” Travis agreed. “But he's not a dick. Dicks are good.”

Ben play-slugged him then, and Gary put on a show of separating them all before dropping the fire ladder off the roof of the apartment building into the parking lot between the apartments and the garage where the bikes were set up and ready to go. They'd barricaded the entire bottom two floors of the building aside from a cat-sized opening in a ground floor apartment Gary was hoping to lure Benjamin in through. This way Gary could leave cat food out and leave a door open for his cat and not risk a much more dangerous visitor. Now the ladder from the roof was the only way in and out.

They had packed a two way radio set that would work better than the walkie talkies, though they had one of those too, from the same set Gary had shared with the Aubrey family. Along with the two way radio set with ten radios that Gary had found in one of the neighboring apartments, they had a solar charger to keep it powered and recharge the handsets. The three friends intended to set up a base camp at Fort Snelling and make it a safe place for other survivors to gather.

“Eve Aubrey's the mother there,” Gary told Travis as first Amanda, then Ben, swung over the edge of the roof and down the ladder at just before eleven AM, as the sun shown brightly in a sky with no trace of the snowstorm Gary's old bones said was coming. “Follow her lead, she kept three children alive in all this. Make sure Ben listens to her, ok?”

“She shall be our glorious leader,” Travis said solemnly, and Gary pretended to shove him off the roof.

“Just do what you can and if there needs to be a boss, let the one with years of experience bossing be that boss, ok?” he said as Travis started down the ladder.

“All hail Eve the Glorious,” Travis said. “I getcha. We'll help her and get Camp Aubrey ready for any survivors.”

“Ok. There's a midwife out there who's been in contact with Rob, I'm going to send them over as soon as you make sure the encampment is safe from any potential biters coming over the walls. She's got a couple pregnant sorts with her.”

“All right, ladies!” Travis said, and Gary wagged a warning finger at him.

“Get off my plane.”

The temp seemed to be hovering at just above freezing. The trio checked their gear one last time and headed up Ford Parkway, biking right down the middle of the street. There was a city bus on its side, but it was only blocking a single lane, and there were only a few cars here and there on the road.

Ben stopped himself from whistling, a long standing, cheerful habit. Now it would just attract undue attention, though he personally felt it wouldn't be long until he could whistle again – he was just waiting until the biters all froze to death, and here in late Minnesota fall, it wouldn't be long. He suspected the storm Gary insisted was coming would be the end of the remaining rioters who hadn't succumbed to starvation or other rioters. As far as he was concerned there was no real need to move to Camp Aubrey, but since there weren't any rotting bodies there and he'd always wanted to camp out at Fort Snelling anyway, he supported the plan. His original objective for wanting to camp out at Fort Snelling was to do some ghost hunting; he'd never seen a ghost and he figured if someone was going to see one, an old fort would be a great place to look. Maybe to spook his friends a few times real good, and he could probably still do that. Plus, he loved helping people, and surely this mother and her three kids could use help and protection.

Just call me Ben the Constable of Camp Aubrey, he though to himself, even though in all honesty that job would suit Amanda way more than himself. She had the training in martial arts, she was stern, and she was quicker to respond to wrongdoing than Ben was.

Ok, he thought. Constable Amanda, Quartermaster Travis because God knows how much Travis likes to organize and make sure everything is fairly distributed. And Ben shall have the job of... Ben can be... Ben can be a ranger! Like Aragorn. Except I'm clearly more likely to refer to myself in third person.

The parking lot to Lunds was empty, the doors broken open. Either the biters had been through here for food and fun bitey times, or other survivors had looted supplies. Ben hoped it was the survivors and that they'd left stuff behind for the trio to find.

They pulled into the parking lot in silence and parked the bikes inside the doors, out of sight. Amanda pointed to herself and to the right, then pointed Ben to the middle and Travis to the left side of the store. She held her machete in her dominant left hand; Travis had bear mace and Ben had a baseball bat at hand.

“I really need a sword,” he whispered.

Amanda held her finger up to her lips to tell him to hush until they'd swept the store and made sure there were no threats.

Remnants of blood spatter and body parts were in evidence in only one aisle, the rest of the store was simply trashed and mostly empty. Even the pet foods aisle was torn up, only toiletries and paper goods avoided most damage. The dry pet foods had been torn open and eaten by either rioters or hungry former pets.

“Reeks in here,” Ben whispered with his hand over his mouth and nose.

“Oh yeah. Like rotten cabbage, death, and unbathed animals,” Amanda agreed.

“You're turned on now, aren't you.” 

She slugged his arm.

Travis rolled his eyes and started gathering up canned pet food. “I can fit a few cases of this in my trailer,” he said quietly. “Why don't you get some canned goods for people, Amanda, and Ben can go get dried food, rice and pasta if any remains.”

“He said remains,” Ben said, and Amanda slugged his arm again. The two went out of the pet food aisle slugging each other in the arm, back and forth.

They all met at the front of the store as they finished up.

“I got matches and lighters, some toilet paper, over the counter meds, and a bunch of canned stuff from Amanda's aisle,” Ben said. “All the dried stuff was torn into.”

“I can't carry any more food,” Amanda said. “I'll be too heavy and won't be able to go very fast – but I did get a pretty decent amount of canned goods packed in, including some raviolis that I am calling dibs on.”

“Once we're set up we can forage more,” Travis said. “We just need to get settled at the encampment and make it safe for others. Then we'll have to bring in as much food and supplies as we can before winter really sets in.”

“We'll need wood,” Amanda said.

“You heard it, Mandy needs wood,” Ben said, and was slugged.

“We will, and we'll have to figure out how to get it without making tons of noise, we should gather deadfall. And maybe we can get some space heaters that run off propane or something.”

“Then we can die a peaceful death in our sleep,” Ben said.

“No, you idiot, there are some made to be used in tents. I think,” she said.

“We're past noon,” Travis reminded them. “We need to go. It gets dark early.”

“And they mostly come out at night. Mostly,” Ben said.

Wibbling Away

Katrin stomped around in her favorite black boots. They were off-brand leather moccasin boots with long fur all over the leg part that came halfway up to her knees; they weren't as warm as good winter boots, but she loved them fiercely. There was at least a faux-shearling liner to keep her feet warm today, when the sun was out and quickly melting the snow into slush; and they were pretty waterproof, though she'd managed to get them soggy anyway.

She was making a drawing of Sonic the Hedgehog in the snow with her footprints, across the parade grounds in the center of the Fort. Her brother and her mom were napping, Val curled up with his mother, his belly full of buttered bread and candy. Eve had taken some water, but couldn't get interested in food. Katrin felt as long as they were resting, she was better off stomping around out here in the outside, where she could listen for Mr Joe's truck and run over to let the guys in.

Several time she heard something that might have been movement, and just in case ran to the top of the Round Tower, but nothing was coming up the road toward the Fort. Just to be sure, she also climbed up on to the Half Moon Battery at the easternmost part of the Fort and looked all around. From here she could see a vast spread of the entire Twin Cities area, with black smoke still rising from parts. With her feet here, on the very old stones of a Fort built in a different era, she felt almost like she was looking through time itself.

“This fort is all wibbley-wobbley timey-wimey,” she announced to the woods below. “And I, Katrin Aubrey, am a Time Lord.”

Far below the Fort, along the trails, she saw what looked like a pack of dogs running toward the south. At first she mistook them for wolves and shivered, feeling even more like the Fort was a-sail in Time, but when she looked more carefully she could see they were pet dogs, or had been. Before.

Kat slushed back through the melting snow to the front door of the house, and walked in as quietly as she could to check on her family and her cats. Eve and Val were both still asleep, Val's curly hair barely showing from behind Eve as he cuddled beneath the blankets on the side of the bed closest to the wall. Eve's cheeks were red.

The preteen found her cat, Leah, sleeping in front of the fire in Eve's room, and Cassie up in the window in the parlor. She set out a little food for them, just out of gratitude that they were safe, and hurried back outside, leaving a small trail of puddled footprints that would surely have aggravated Eve if she was feeling better.

This time, up on top of the Round Tower so she could both check her progress on Sonic and look for her brother and Mr Joe and the truck, she actually saw the truck coming up from the visitor's center parking lot area. It was moving very slowly and almost unsteadily, and she knew instinctively that her brother was driving.

“Probably a mistake,” she said under her breath, and ran down to open the vehicle gate after making sure nothing resembling a rioter was anywhere she could see.

She had several funny things to say planned out to make fun of her brother's driving, but fell silent when she saw Will pull in with no sign of Mr Joe, Will's face stricken and grey.  She closed the vehicle door in silence.

Will pulled up beside the gun shed and parked the truck. He got out very slowly, closed the door and leaned against it, his forehead on the cold metal of the truck door.

“Mr Joe?” Katrin asked softly.

`

“There were zombies at the pharmacy. They... they got him,” Will said, his voice thick with tears. Kat ran over and wrapped her arms around him and let him cry for a moment, just a moment, before he manfully stood fully upright and patted her on the back.

“Let's get Mom her meds,” he said. “Let's unpack.”

Night fell, and Will taught himself how to make toast in a fireplace for Val and Kat. He placed the bread slices directly on the surface of a hot, dry pan, flipping them carefully with his fingers and only singing himself once. When the toast was done, he fried up a can of Spam and made cheese cubes of the last of the cheese. The last loaf of bread was nearly gone, and Eve was too ill to eat, and more worrisome for Val, too ill to cook.

For dessert Katrin passed around hard candy and bottles of fancy soda from the gift shop she'd kept cool on the little landing outside the back door of the house.

“There's a big kitchen in the basement,” she said as Will poked at the fire. She wasn't sure what to do with the used dishes, so she gathered them all up into one of the plastic bins. “It's got a real oven in the fireplace where people used to bake things like bread.”

“I don't think we can bake bread – we don't have any yeast.”

“Also, remember? You can bake bread in the dutch ovens in the fire – Mom did that at a pow-wow before.”

“No yeast,” Will repeated.

“We could make fry bread.”

“Fry bread!” Val chirped. “I love it fry bread! Make mine cheese on top!”

“We're out of cheese,” Kat reminded him.

“Oh, no, my cheeses,” Val said mournfully.

“Joe might still have some in his quarters,” Will said after a moment, and his siblings fell silent too.

Val finally cleared his throat. “Joe like me have cheeses,” he said firmly.

“He wouldn't want us to waste it,” Will agreed. “I'll go see what we can use in the morning.”

Kat tucked Val in while Will emptied the commode out into one of the modern visitor's bathrooms; the one in the building used by the former employees had a shower in it and Will wondered if he could rig something up so they could shower there instead of having to sponge bathe.

“You read me story,” Val demanded. “I want Where Wild Things Are.”

“I don't have that book,” Kat said. “We left it at the apartment.”

“You get me new one?”

“I'll try,” she said, and kissed his forehead.

“You tell me story. About Sharknado.”

Will checked his mother and gave her another dose of the antibiotics and pain meds, then went up to his room. He pulled the walkie talkie out and pinged Gary.

“Young Will!” Gary said through the static just as Will was dozing off, exhausted.

“Gary. Hi. We're here. Joe has been killed – the medic. He died today.”

“I'm sorry to hear that, man. I'll have three young folks coming your way the day after tomorrow, though, you won't be out there alone long. How's Mother Eve?”

“Her fever's going down, I think, but she's still pretty ill. We have the medicine for her though.”

“Still not Red Flu?”

“Definitely not. She was bitten, human bites are filthy.”

“At least it's not like the movies – we don't turn from being bitten. And I do have some good news, for me at least. I saw Benjamin the jerk cat today! I'm tempting him into the apartment with food. I have to be careful because the biters eat the cat food if they smell it, and then they're crawling all over here again. But as soon as I have Benjamin, I'll be over too. I've got some solar power rechargers and stuff like that. Not a lot, but enough to recharge some batteries. And power the radios.” A long moment of silence followed. “Will? Will Aubrey?”

Will snored softly, the sound not picked up by the walkie talkie.

“Will?” Gary tried one more time. Katrin heard him as she came in to check on her brother and tell him she intended to curl up with Eve for the night. She covered her sleeping brother up and picked up the walkie talkie.

“He fell asleep,” she said loudly into the hand-held device, holding it in front of her. Will snored through the disturbance.

“Well, goodnight, fair maiden, and keep safe.”

“You too,” she said, giggling a little.

Driving Lesson

Joe drove slowly up 54^th street and turned toward the hospital on Minnehaha. The snow had melted off the roads and sidewalks already, and it appeared the military had kept the roads fairly clear of cars over here while they'd still been around.

“When we come out of the hospital, I'm going to have you drive us back to the Fort,” Joe said, his voice inviting no argument. It was important the boy know how to get around and how to drive the truck.

“I've driven before,” Will said, offhand, desperately casual. “My aunt let me drive around her parking lot.”

“Got a license?”

“No – driver's ed is expensive, and you don't need it to get your license after you turn 18, so I was waiting.”

“Well, you get us back to the Fort and I'll call you a licensed provisional driver,” Joe Raymond said, with a half-smile. He came to a stop in front of the main drive into the hospital, beside the metro train station. “We'll come out, and then drive the wrong way on this road – we'll go straight down that way, and end up back at the Fort without a lot of lollygagging.”

“I've never driven on the wrong side of the road before,” Will said nervously.

“I hope you don't get a ticket.”

Joe pulled up to the outpatient entrance and parked on the sidewalk just outside the broken doors. They sat quietly for a while, Joe holding a finger to his lips. The door was broken and still, a massive revolving door with the glass broken and twisted bits of debris wedged between the door sides and the walls.

Human remains littered the foyer, but only bits and pieces. Everything else, Will realized, was long since eaten. He held in a gag.

Nothing moved inside the hospital. A tiny dusting of snow sifted down from the rooftops, the small icy tinkle as it fell against the truck the only sound Will could discern outside of their own breathing.

Joe pointed at the crowbar on the floor on the passenger side of the truck, indicating that Will should take it as a weapon, and then the truck door, and then into the hospital foyer. He pointed at his own eyes and then all around them.

Will nodded. The younger man slid quietly out of the truck, leaving his door open. He slipped into the hospital, alert, his heart pounding, his vision sharp.

Inside to the right was a small hallway and what appeared to be a coffee shop, then a security desk. Beyond that the entrance split into hallways that had been closed off and locked with heavy doors. A couple of these doors were also chained shut.

He stood there for long moments, adjusting to the difference in light inside the hospital, listening for any hint of human or once-human movement.

After long moments he gestured a thumbs up to Joe, who slid out of his side of the truck as well, leaving it running. In preparation for hauling supplies out of the hospital, Joe opened the back of his truck. He left his rifle behind, but took an axe and his backpack with him. The rifle would be less useful inside, and loud – if there were rioters nearby, the sound of the rifle firing would draw them in.

Will hurried along behind Joe as the older man moved with surprising speed and silence, following him behind the security desk. Joe looked at him and mimed turning a key in a lock, and they both searched for keys. Will mostly stuck to the desk; Joe, with some reluctance, sorted through what was left of a security guard's torn and bloody uniform on the floor. Some hair and bone remained, but little else of the actual security guard.

They found no keys, and Will again followed Joe as quickly and silently as he could as Joe led him to the pharmacy.

At the blocked off intersection of hallways, Joe turned right. The pharmacy was just a slight bit down the hallway on the left side, this hallway was opened a little further, and blocked off at the next intersection with chained doors and piles of furniture. The young man suppressed a shiver.

Someone had managed to close the place down pretty securely, probably in hopes of a rescuing force.

Will stood between Joe and the foyer, keeping guard with Joe's axe, while Joe popped the pharmacy door open with the crowbar. They switched weapons back and flipped on their flashlights going in to the unlit, unwindowed room.

Joe swept the pharmacy with the beam of his flashlight, then, seeing it was empty of life, closed the pharmacy door and propped a chair beneath the lever handle. He pulled a small camp lantern out of his backpack and turned in on, setting it on the pharmacy counter. The two jumped over the counter. Joe pulled out a plastic bin from a pile stacked to the side and handed it to Will, gesturing for the boy to follow him. He held his flashlight in his teeth as he combed through the shelves, much more sparsely stocked than he had hoped.

He filled two bins total with medications and first aid supplies. In the back they found some left behind scarfs, hats and mittens, and they packed those into the two bins as well.

“There's some food back here in the break room,” Joe said. “Lets get these bins in the truck then come back for a couple more, if we can find enough to fill them.” Will nodded eagerly.

Will dropped the crow bar as he slid his bin into the back of the truck, making a loud clash that stopped his heart. He froze, but Joe quickly and silently got both bins secured and shut the back of the truck, dragging them both around to the driver side door, where they crouched, waiting to hear any noise indicating a hungry creature had heard them.

There was nothing, not even animal sounds – no crows, no small birds.

“Lets make this quick,” Joe muttered, and they hurried back in, Will grabbing the crowbar on his way past.

They filled two more bins up with the rest of the medications and the snacks from the cupboards and the lockers in the break room. Joe hugged a canister of coffee with some glee.

Will followed him out into the pharmacy as they made to leave, and nearly bumped into his back when Joe stopped suddenly.

“We left the door open,” Joe whispered, and was answered by an unintelligible, slobbery growl.

“You don't,” another voice whispered back.

“Back up, back up,” Joe said. “Back inside the break room!” Will hurried to obey, stumbling backwards as Joe hurled his bin at the four painfully thin, shaking zombies climbing up over the counters and toward them. The boy handed him his bin and Joe hurled that too, just as they both stepped back behind the threshold, and Joe slammed the break room door between them and the zombies.

“You don't!” one of the creatures snarled, and they hit the door with force. While they seemed to have some trouble with doorknobs, this door opened with a lever handle, and did not lock. Joe and Will both grabbed for the handle and held it upright with all their strength just in time as one of the creatures managed to press against the lever.

The break room was dark, their flashlights dropped out in the pharmacy, the lantern still on the counter out there.

“Shit. Shit,” Will whispered frantically.

“Got your weapon?” Joe asked, calmly.

“It's by my feet,” Will said.

“Reach down and pick it up.”

“I can't let go of the handle!”

“Boy, I said reach down and pick it up,” Joe barked, and Will bent down instinctively and grabbed the crowbar. “Now, hold the handle for me. They're not jogging it on purpose, I don't think. I'm going to go to the back of the room with my axe. You're going to pull the door open when I say so, and stay behind the door. Then when they run in after me -”

“No, no-” Will began.

“Shut it, kid. Listen up now. When they run in after me, you're going to run out into the pharmacy, jump over the counter, and start making noise out in the hallway. Then when they come after you, I'll follow them out. Run out to the truck and get in, ok? Shut the doors. Slide over to the driver's seat. Drive around the circle there just fast enough to lead them, get ahead a bit, drive back here, and I'll jump in, ok?”

“I could go lure them to the back of the break room.”

“No good. You run faster than me, it has to be you out in the hallway.”

Will struggled without speaking for a moment, holding the handle tightly against the bumping of the creatures making a hungry racket on the other side of the door.

“You run faster. You're the best chance to get those medicines back to your mother. Give her the 500 milligram Augmentin, every 8 hours.”

“We need you to be there,” Will said, his voice breaking. For a moment he sounded barely adolescent.

“I'm gonna do my best, kid, but we gotta be ready for contingencies. Weren't you ever a boy scout?”

“Thought about it...”

“Enough talking. Let's do it already. Ready?” He felt Will nod and let go of the handle. Will heard him back up against the far wall. Joe started banging his axe handle on the wall and shouting.

The creatures on the other side of the door fell silent for a moment, then began calling and scrabbling again with more insistence.

“I'm ready, Will,” Joe said, and Will opened the door, pulling it in and then tightly against him against the inside wall. “Wait... wait... GO!” the old man roared.

Will slid around the door and bolted for the counters, crowbar in hand. He leapt up on the counter and turned around to see what was happening, hesitating for a moment.

The old man was down already. Will heard him scream in sudden pain, and he screamed too. Two of the creatures looked up, turned those bulging red eyes on Will, and growled like animals.

“GET OUT!” Joe screamed, the sound choked off suddenly.

“Shit!” Will turned and jumped down off the counters, bolting for the pharmacy door, managing to slam it shut just as the two creatures cleared the counters themselves. He felt the impact of their bodies on the other side of the door as he braced himself against it, before remembering the door opened inwards, and their own bodies would hold it shut.

“No no no no NOT!” one of them shrieked.

“You fucking fucks!” Will shrieked back, and hit the door with the crowbar. They scrabbled and howled even louder, and he realized what he was doing – yelling at some things that had no ability to even understand human speech any more.

“I hate you,” he muttered. The bins were both lost. Joe Raymond was lost, too, his voice silenced in death. “I hate you things.”

Shoulders slumped, hands shaking and eyes red with tears he wasn't aware of, Will headed back to the truck to try and get home and save his mother.