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West of Halfway, Kentucky
Watching the sun go down, Sandy and Mary sat in the folding chairs sipping coffee as Ian and Lance, less than a hundred and fifty miles away, left the cabin to investigate the pirates. “There’s still a lot of people left,” Mary mumbled.
Throwing up her right hand, “Yes, but how? There had to be hundreds of thousands of stinkers on I65 heading to Bowling Green. Why, I don’t know, but they were heading north,” Sandy cried out in a low voice. “I heard three cars, and you heard four moving around us. How can they do that with so many stinkers that close?”
“We aren’t asking,” Mary grunted.
Lifting her cup up, Sandy took a sip as she nodded. “I don’t care what they are selling.”
“You listen to the scanner?” Mary asked.
Nodding, “And the radio we got off those two,” Sandy answered. “On the scanner, I heard lots of voices on the CB frequencies, and on one channel of the radio we took off those two I shot, I swear it was two Army people talking. They kept talking about lines of travel and available assets.”
“I never listened to that radio,” Mary said, looking at the radio strapped on the back of the left shoulder of her vest. “So, we leave them off, right?”
“Johnathan said unless you talk, they can’t track you,” Sandy answered. “You hear any on the scanner give locations?”
Shaking her head, “No, but from the needle on the scanner pegging out, I’m thinking some were close,” Mary offered.
Wishing they knew more, Sandy could only shrug as she finished her coffee off. “I think we need to play it safe and head to the first camp site,” Sandy said, feeling sick for even saying it.
“Yeah, we’ve put up with too much to run into trouble now,” Mary sighed. “I vote to let Tyler and Chris continue to use the thermals like they did last night. It will hit our batteries hard, but they don’t let anything get close.”
Tilting her in agreement, “Tyler knew he was looking at people and not stinkers when that group came out of the trees,” Sandy said. “Let’s do it again tonight, and if they continue to do like they have been, we just sacrifice the batteries.”
“Yeah,” Mary nodded. “Feels weird to not be reciting the line of travel,” she grinned. “Because we are on it.”
A smile spread across Sandy’s face. “You realize we are only thirty-eight miles from our neighborhood?”
“Yeah, but I don’t need to swing by the house and grab anything,” Mary chuckled.
Getting up, Sandy held out a hand to help Mary up. Grabbing Sandy’s hand, Mary pulled her body from the chair and then drained her cup. “You wake the kids and I’ll start packing.”
“Okay,” Sandy said, moving over to the boys curled up together on her bedroll. She and Mary just traded out when the other was on guard duty. Shaking the boys gently, Sandy got ready to catch them if they jumped up ready to run.
Somewhat surprised, Sandy watched both sit up while rubbing their eyes. “Afternoon,” she smiled at them. “Food’s ready, so you two need to eat and then we can leave.”
Hearing food, the two finally jumped up and Sandy noticed both still winced in pain from the cuts on their feet. The cuts were healing nice, but their feet were very swollen. The boys put the socks on and hobbled over to the chairs as Sandy handed them the bowl of oatmeal.
Grabbing the spoons, the boys started eating and looking around. “Until the stinkers came, we never slept outside,” Chris told her.
“Not a good time to learn, but you two adapted really good,” Sandy replied, ruffling each one’s hair.
Looking up confused, “Adapted?” Chris asked.
Smiling, Sandy reached over to ruffle his hair again. “Adjusting to new conditions,” Sandy explained. “The world changed and you two changed with it, figuring out how to stay alive.”
“How far are we going tonight?” Tyler asked with a mouthful.
“Thirty miles if we can, but I think we’ll stop at twenty-two,” Sandy answered as a chorus of gunshots sounded off to the south. Even the dogs and horses turned toward the gunshots. After a few minutes, the gunfire stopped just as suddenly as it had started.
Swallowing his food, “I wish we could go further,” Tyler whispered.
“Me too, but there are too many people and stinkers around here moving in big groups. We have to move slowly, so we don’t run into trouble. We won’t be moving in daylight unless we can’t help it. There are too many threats around, and we need to be under cover before the sun rises.”
“If we make thirty miles each night, how long till we get home?” Tyler asked for the hundredth time.
Letting out a sigh as she smiled, “If,” she stressed again, “we can keep that up, we will be there in seven days by going thirty miles a day.”
Looking up from the pot of oatmeal, “But it’s not that far. If we travel thirty miles a day for seven days...” Chris paused, trying to work out the problem in his mind. Staring at Chris, Sandy was expecting smoke to erupt from his ears at any moment.
“What is seven times three?” Sandy asked. Chris squinted his eye, actually straining very hard and trying to figure it out. With his face turning red and veins standing out on his forehead, Sandy snapped, “Chris!” Startled, he opened his eyes to look at her. “Stop before you hurt something,” Sandy told him, picking up a stick and drew the problem in the dirt.
“Seven times three is twenty-one, and you just bring the zero down. Seven times thirty is two hundred and ten miles,” Sandy said, working the problem in the dirt. When she looked up, both boys were looking at her like she was a savant.
“But the cabin isn’t that far away,” Chris mumbled in awe at Sandy.
“Baby, if we could fly it would be, but is the land flat?” she asked. “No, we have to go over hills and through valleys, around lakes and rivers, so we have to travel over two hundred miles to get one hundred and forty. And we don’t travel in straight lines. That’s why I stressed ‘If’,” she told them. “I’m hoping to be there in a week, but I think it will take us nine days.”
“Will you show us on the map today?” Tyler asked.
“No,” Sandy replied instantly. “Boys, if you touch a map, others can see it if they find it. If we lose that map, someone could find us. We’ve shown you the town it’s close to. If you two continue learning how to read maps, then we can talk about it.”
“How did you get so smart?” Chris asked in awe. Sandy turned to Tyler and found he was just speechless.
“I wish I was smart,” Sandy sighed. “If I was, we would be home by now.”
“You didn’t even use your fingers doing math in the dirt,” Chris pointed out with wide eyes.
Grinning at the two, Sandy leaned over and saw the bowl was empty. “Wash the bowl out, so we can pack up and leave,” she told them. They grabbed bottles of water and washed the bowl out as Mary came over.
“Sandy, we will get to teach them,” Mary almost cheered softly. “Lance and Ian were doing homework and Ian came to me the week before we left for Hawaii, wanting help on analytic geometry equations. I had no idea what the hell he was talking about. All I could do was look at the problem, hoping it would solve itself. I told Ian I couldn’t work it out and told him to ask Bill, who then called Johnathan at work.”
Sandy grinned, nodding. “And Johnathan promptly called a tutor that came over. Remember the tutor’s face when he realized the boys were in Junior High but taking college courses?”
“Yes, and if I would’ve had to take analytic geometry in college, I would’ve failed. I’m kind of excited that we actually get to teach,” Mary grinned.
Watching the two washing the bowl, “Hey, you had Allie and Jason to help with. Lance pretty much made me feel useless after he turned five,” Sandy admitted. “I love my baby boy, but shit, why did he have to be born old?”
“Well, we are the envy of many parents,” Mary sighed, shaking her head as the boys dropped the clean bowl in the dirt. “Can I wash the bowl for them yet?”
“No, they have to learn this, then they will refill the bottles.”
“It took them six bottles to wash the pot this morning,” Mary reminded her. “Can I show them again?”
“Mary, we’ve shown them four times each day, they have to learn,” Sandy explained. “Did you see how Chris was straining to work out multiplication? I thought his head was going to explode. As hard as he was straining, I’m surprised he didn’t take a dump and bust a blood vessel in his head.”
“I’ll start on that tonight,” Mary smiled. “We can do that while we keep an eye out.”
Shaking her head, “I want to find this nana and the parents, and kill them with my bare hands. The boys are bright, but haven’t been given the chance to do anything,” Sandy sighed. “Want some advice? Don’t go to multiplication, start with basic math. These aren’t our kids yet.”
When the boys finally had the bowl clean, Sandy let them refill the water bottles, and they let the boys walk through camp to check it over. The sun was down when they climbed up on the horses. “Just like last night, Tyler,” Sandy told him, adjusting her bow and rifle.
Kicking her horse, Sandy moved out of the oxbow and across the field into the trees. Sitting in front of her, Tyler’s little head was like a sweeping radar dish traversing back and forth slowly. Sandy felt Tyler tense up and leaned down. “What?”
“There’s a big road ahead through the trees,” he told her in a low voice.
Hearing a growl below her, Sandy patted her leg. “Dan,” she called out softly, and the growl stopped. “You see stinkers on the road?”
“No, but I see one hiding behind a bush,” Tyler replied, lifting his hand and pointing to the right. Turning to where Tyler was pointing, Sandy only saw the forest in her NV monocular.
Glancing down at Dan, Sandy saw he was looking to the right. “Tyler, let me see,” Sandy said, taking the thermal binoculars from him. Flipping up the monocular, Sandy lifted the thermals and instantly saw the cool shape of a stinker crouched behind a bush. “That is bullshit,” Sandy gasped in a normal voice.
Using the thermal monocular, “Are you seeing this?” Mary asked, moving up beside Sandy.
“That fucker is really hiding. I didn’t see him in my night vision,” Sandy said, lowering the thermal and flipping her monocular back down. Staring at the bush with the monocular, Sandy could see small movements, but nothing to tell her a stinker was hiding there. “The thermals stay on,” Sandy announced.
“Can we kill it, so he can’t teach other stinkers?” Mary asked, lowering the thermal monocular.
Shoving her bow in the scabbard, Sandy pulled out the 10/22. “We are traveling through woods most of the way. Let’s stay on the .22s,” Sandy suggested.
“Good idea,” Mary nodded, grabbing hers. “Can I kill it now? Because we aren’t going to test what it will do, like our husbands would?”
Thinking that was actually a good idea, Sandy stopped that train of thought and nodded. “Kill it,” she said and Mary moved ahead, aiming at the bush. When Mary was ten yards away, the stinker stood up before heading straight for her, not making a sound. Mary pulled the trigger and a muffled bark with a small sonic crack sounded in the woods, and Sandy watched the stinker drop.
“That’s bullshit. It acted like it could see in the dark better than a human could.”
“I didn’t even see it with my eyes, and there is a big moon out tonight,” Tyler said, already scanning around them with the thermals again. “They usually don’t see good in dark shadows. And I’ve never seen one hide that good before.”
“Yeah, I’m not liking this,” Sandy mumbled to herself. Moving past Mary, Sandy fought off the desire to burn the dead stinker. “Can you see stinkers on the road ahead?”
“Some, and it’s two roads side by side,” Tyler corrected.
Patting Tyler’s leg, “Yes, Highway 231,” Sandy told him. Stopping back from the tree line, Sandy could see a few forms walking slowly along the highway. Some were going north and others, south.
Gunshots sounded to the north and everyone jumped. “That was loud,” Tyler informed Sandy, in case she didn’t know.
“That wasn’t even half a mile,” Sandy replied.
“I’m thinking that came near the town Halfway, it’s not half a mile away,” Mary said in a low voice, and they watched all the stinkers on the road turn as one and stumble toward the gunshots. Then another burst of shots sounded out.
“We’re leaving,” Sandy said, kicking her horse and steering it towards the gaps between the stinkers. Tyler tensed up, but never stopped swiveling his head as they crossed the four lane highway. “I hate fucking fences,” Sandy snarled, climbing off quickly and grabbing the bolt cutters.
Cutting the three strands, the gunfire opened up again and didn’t stop. Climbing back in the saddle, Sandy was barely down when her horse walked through the gap. “You want your name to stay Asshole?” Sandy hissed at the horse, then glanced back and only saw a few stinkers even trying to follow them. Most of the stinkers were heading for the gunfire.
When they entered the trees, Sandy expected to feel Tyler relax, but his body was as taut as a coiled spring. “What’s wrong?”
“They are still shooting,” Tyler told her.
“Behind us, and that’s where we want them to stay,” Sandy informed him.
Coming out of the trees and into fields, Sandy kept them near the fence rows and steered wide of any house. “There’s a bunch of stinkers at that house,” Tyler pointed ahead.
Looking where he was pointing, Sandy couldn’t even see the house. Taking the thermal, Sandy found the house nearly a mile away. “Yeah, that’s a lot of stinkers around that house,” she admitted, handing the thermals back. “As long as they stay there, we don’t care.”
After two hours of constant scanning, Tyler finally lowered the thermals to blink his eyes as they rode across a field. “Are we going over that bridge you and Ms. Mary were talking about?”
“No, we only take bridges we have to. We will swing north of Barren River Lake,” Sandy told him. “We don’t like bridges or barns.”
Nearing more trees ahead, the thermals seemed to levitate to Tyler’s eyes. He scanned the trees and then continued side to side. “Ms. Sandy, do you hear that?” he asked.
Cocking her head to the side, all Sandy could hear were insects. “What do you hear?”
“Thumping,” Tyler answered.
Hearing Mary’s horse moving close, Sandy turned. “Chris hears a helicopter ahead,” Mary said.
“Tyler heard it, but didn’t know what it was,” Sandy nodded. “We will go through these trees slowly.”
Guiding her horse around trees, it was ten minutes later that Sandy finally heard the faint sound of a helicopter. “Too much loud rock and roll,” Sandy huffed. She pulled her horse to a stop as the helicopter seemed to linger just to the east.
Hearing Mary digging around, Sandy turned to see Mary pull out the scanner. “What’s the helicopter doing?” Tyler asked, lowering the thermals.
“I don’t know, baby,” Sandy admitted and watched Tyler lift his finger up, pointing east. Then he would move his arm slowly south and then slowly back north. “Baby, what are you doing?”
“Tracking the helicopter,” Tyler answered. Watching Tyler’s finger, every time it stopped at the north or south end of his arc, Sandy could tell the noise was getting louder.
Jerking her head up, Sandy saw a thick canopy over them and gave a sigh of relief. “What?” Mary asked.
“That helicopter is flying back and forth, going north and south and getting closer. I think it’s flying a search pattern,” Sandy suggested. “Tyler, good boy, but get back on the thermal.”
Lifting the thermals, Tyler scanned back and forth. Ten minutes later, there was no denying the sound was getting closer each time the chopper flew north and south. After sitting in the trees for half an hour, they finally saw the chopper to the east. It didn’t seem high as it flew at a leisurely pace north. When they saw it again heading south, it was only a few miles away.
When it returned from the south, the chopper nearly flew over them and Sandy fought the urge to shoot at it. She knew it was a military helicopter, but that was it. Watching it head north, Sandy thought it was flying pretty low. “What do you think that was about?” Mary asked.
“I think they are looking for survivors to feed to stinkers,” Sandy shrugged and felt Tyler tense up, and cursed herself for saying that. “That’s why we waited, so they couldn’t see us,” she told him, and Tyler relaxed some. “Flying like that, they could only be looking for people, maybe someone in particular but either way, it’s not good and we will avoid them like always.”
Listening to the chopper pass behind them, “They damn sure don’t need to fly like that to find stinkers,” Mary grunted. “You ready?”
As the chopper headed south, Sandy nodded as she kicked her horse and moved out into the pasture. “Tyler, what is five plus three?” Sandy asked, and Tyler went to lower the thermals and Sandy stopped him. “No, I want you to think as you keep watch. Use your brain and not your fingers, now count three numbers up from five.”
“Okay,” he mumbled. “Eight,” he said hesitantly.
“Very good,” Sandy told him. “Seven plus five?” she asked, glancing around as they continued on.
