Alone...16

Started on: 9-29-2010 / Finished on: 10-22-10

Chapter 16

Washburn was a small town; may be 3,000 people lived there. It also sits right on the shores of Lake Superior. I could smell the lake and feel the cool fall winds blowing in from the east. It was darker out and the temperature was dropping like a rock. I think it was already late September, I had lost track of the months and the days, and I was following the seasons now. There was no more routine getting up for work or staying in late because it was the weekend and certainly no more time management. It was just another day blending into just another night and so on. I kind of liked that; just being was all I needed.

“Lets be on guard here Becky, it looks like a little chaos ensued in this town.” Grant said as he took out a flashlight and started panning the buildings. We had grabbed a bigger one from the house we just stayed in, to help us out a little more at night.

He was right; it looked like something happened here, something bad, you could smell the death as we made our way further up HWY 13. It was the main road into the town, there were cars parked all over the place, some were crashed into buildings. We could see people, or should I say Ghouls, still in their cars. It looked like they were just sitting there waiting for someone to open the door, others looked like they had been dead for too long, and were rotting.

“Eww, it sure does smell here.” Billy said. “We aren’t going to stay in this town, are we?

“We may not have a choice; it’s too dark to travel anywhere else. We may have to set up camp in the woods further up the highway.” Grant replied. “We could cut across on HWY Road C; it would take us right up into Cornucopia.”

“I’m game.” I said. “Like Billy said, it smells too much to stay here.”

We hiked up 13 for a little while more, and ended up on C. Boy was it dark out, now I know why we don’t travel at night. The only light we had was the almost full moon and our flashlights. I kept hearing rustling noises all around us, and hoped it was just an animal or two scampering about. C was forest on each side of us, and no telling what may pop out of either side. I kept Billy close and even closer to Grant, so close I kept stepping on the back of his heals.

“Come on Beck!” He said. “You don’t need to be right on top of me.”

I giggled a little, “I’m sorry. I know I shouldn’t be scared, but I am...just a little.”

“Mom, with all the shit you’ve seen and done, you shouldn’t be scared of anything.” Billy said.

“It’s the uncertainty of it honey, that’s all....did you just say shit?” I asked with a little laugh. We all had a laugh at what he said, and it’s true, I shouldn’t be scared. I shook it off and stepped back a little, but I still kept Billy close to me.

“Grant? When do you think we should stop and camp?” I asked.

“We can right up here, there looks to be a service road of some kind up ahead.” He said. “We can see if there’s a clearing off of it and set up camp.”

He led the way down the “road”, panning the flashlight back and forth. Just ahead of us we spotted a little cabin and headed over to it. It was a little rundown looking, but it was shelter none the less. He took his gun out of his waistband and took lead into the cabin. Billy and I stayed outside while he did a search. When he was done he called for us to come in. It was very small, and looked like it wasn’t used in a few years. It had only one door, which was good, and on that same wall a small window. The back of the room had two windows on it, they had curtains on them. It looked like an old shed converted into a little “sleep shack”.

“Well, it is what it is!” Grant said. “There are all kinds of these little cabins all over these woods. They are mostly used by deer hunters that come up to the north woods for a little get away.”

“It will do.” I replied. “Let’s get our gear off and the sleeping bags out. I think if we zip the two bigger ones together, we can all climb in to stay warmer.”

We slid a heavy wooden work bench in front of the door to keep anyone or anything from trying to get in, and then got out the sleeping bags. I was ready to have a good night of sleep. Grant was behind me, and I had Billy in front of me. It was a little cramped, but if we all slept on our sides, we fit just fine. As I drifted off, I started to think of the things we would do once we made it to the cabin. Have a good hot bath for one, not just me either; we all needed it, and a good home cooked meal. There are all kinds of Elk and Deer wondering these parts, and they make for good eating. It would be getting colder than it is now so we would need to collect wood for the wood burning furnace and make sure we had enough in storage. We could also ice fish if we were sick of red meat. When spring comes around it will breathe new life into the land, and I will plant my vegetable garden. Billy and Grant will be hunting and fishing...there is so much to think about and my mind was swirling with ideas. My headache was making it hard for me to fall asleep, but I finally did about an hour later to the shallow breathing of Grant and Billy who had drifted off long before I did.

Morning came with a crisp chill in the air, and us wanting to stay cuddled up in the warm sleeping bag, but if we were to make good time, we needed to get up. We crawled out, ate a little food, rolled up the bags and headed out on our way. County Road C was a small back country road that was densely wooded on both sides. The branches in the canopy reached across to the other side, intertwining with the other branches creating a beautiful arch of twisted wood work. It was a nice change of scenery. The trees were almost at their peak fall colors and the leaves that fell littered the road with vibrant colors in various shades of red, orange and yellow, they crunched under our feet and the woodsy earthy smells of fall filled the air. It brought back memories of my childhood days growing up in Wauwatosa. My Dad would rake huge piles of leaves for my Sister and me to jump in. I can remember it like it was yesterday, those were such happy times. I wanted to give Billy those happy times when we reached the cabin, take his mind off of the horror that he has witnessed for the past year. He seem to like the horror, and now that he had a gun for protection he was even more eager to take on Ghouls, it kind of worried me, but I knew that Grant would keep him under control.

“So how much further?” Asked Billy.

“Not much more,” Grand said. “We should only have to camp one more time, and then we will be there!”

“I can’t wait,” I said. “I am so ready to get into some kind of normalcy.” Whatever that may be, I still did not feel all together and my headaches were getting worse. The aspirin we got from our last stop was not helping at all.

Further up the little dirt road it looked like a car was parked just off to the left side, it almost looked like it was partially in the drainage ditch. Grant and I drew our guns as we approached it cautiously, and told Billy to stay behind us and ready if we needed any help. As we got closer the stench of death was very pungent. All of the doors were open and the windows were caked with dried blood. Something bad happened to whoever was in this car. We walked up to the car and peered inside to see if there was anyone that needed a bullet in their head, but only saw a grotesque site of a very bloody struggle. Intestines, chunks of skin and an eyeball littered the floor boards. If it wasn’t so chilly out, there would have been flies and maggots everywhere.

“Oh my god! The smell was overpowering to me. I pulled my shirt up over my mouth and nose.

“Something very bad happened here.” Grant said. “We need to watch out for Ghouls, the stench alone will bring them in like a jar of honey to bees.”

“Mom! Dad!” Billy was trying to keep his voice down as he yelled for us; he was now running up to us with his gun drawn. “There is some rustling in the woods to the right, and it don’t sound like animals.”

We were on high alert. The rustling was all around us, and running was not an option, they were coming down the road we were trying to go up.

“We need to kill as many as we can and try to get the hell outta here!” Grant said.

“I’m with you on that.” I said. I took out my other gun from my backpack and made sure it was loaded. I looked over at Grant and he did the same. Billy was already prepared, such a good little boy.

Grant and I were back to back, like we had done many times before, but this time we had Billy too, he was now part of this and made us a triangle of flying bullets. They started to make their deafening moans as they approached us, and we dropped them as fast as we could. It almost seemed like there was not end in sight. They just kept strolling out of the woods like they were invited to a family picnic. Their bodies started to pile up in front of us making it harder for them to get to us. There must have been 50 or 60 that we already killed, and another fresh brood coming at us.

“I need to reload!” Billy shouted. He rifled thru his backpack, put a fresh clip in and continued shooting. Every once and awhile I would glance down at him to make sure he was doing ok, and I saw this little boy turning into a grown man. His expressions so serious and his shooting was very methodical, almost mechanical.

“Reloading!” I shouted. Billy had the clips in his backpack, while I got mine out and in; they kept the Ghouls at bay.
Grant was nearing the end of the clip in one of his guns, and when I heard it click I handed him a new one. He just looked at me and smiled. In that moment it felt like just us three, and nothing else, it had all disappeared. Reality struck when Grant yelled to make a run for it.

“Let’s go! I’m gonna try and hit the gas tank of the car!” Grant shouted.

There was a clearing in the stream of Ghouls, we took our chances and ran for it. Grant turned around and shot at the car. He nailed it, the car exploded along with some of the Ghouls that were walking towards it. They were vaporized into clouds of black fog and body chunks. We just kept on running.