days ago was at the bottom of that triangle and to their right.
It was about an hour before sunrise when Catie shook Kevin. “You need to wake up!”
Kevin batted her hand away and rolled over, but she was insistent. Finally, Kevin sat up and rubbed his eyes. They were in a hammock suspended about thirty feet above the ground. It was always best to be extra secure near settlements. That would be where you found the most zombie activity since they are drawn to sound.
It did not take him long to see what the reason was behind her waking him at such an ungodly hour. The settlement that made the top point in the triangle was on fire.
“That puts things on hold,” Kevin sighed.
“You think maybe the storm caused it? There was an awful lot of lightning last night.” Catie scrunched in close and pulled their sleeping bag up around her shoulders.
“Anything is possible.” Kevin knew that Catie didn’t believe that theory any more than he, but there was no use in getting all worked up over something they had no part in or control over.
As the sun rose, Kevin and Catie sat in the perch their hammock provided and scanned the area with binoculars. Nothing looked out of order. There were no large mobs of the undead or hints of roving bands that might be raiding the area.
“Still want to go down there?” Kevin asked as he slowly swept his gaze in a wide left-to-right pattern searching for anything that might be the cause of the fire that still burned in that village.
“Maybe they need you now more than ever,” Catie answered with grim determination.
Kevin was no fool. He knew why Catie was so behind this. He could even see her reasoning, but this felt too abrupt. There were plenty of smaller settlements that were not a world away from the place they had called home all these years. But then again, maybe that was precisely the point. They climbed down and rolled up their gear.
“Let’s get down there and see what is what,” Catie said as she slung her pack up and onto her shoulders, giving the straps a tug to cinch them up a bit.
The couple started down the hill and stopped when they reached the banks of a river. Just like the days when man first began to populate the Earth, settlements were usually next to a ready and clean water source.
The waterways had become much cleaner now that man was not dumping everything into them. Still, nobody was brave enough to risk not boiling the water first. Many of the major rivers near big cities were almost worse off now than before as the factories and such fell and sent all the toxins that remained into the water either directly or through runoff.
Still, out in what had been the sticks before the zombie apocalypse, things were noticeably cleaner. What was even more peculiar, Kevin could notice the difference in the smell of the air within an hour or so of leaving a camp or town. And, despite dismissing it at first as just his imagination, he could smell them before they arrived. To put it bluntly, humanity stunk.
They were just crossing the river at a flimsy rope bridge when a voice called out, freezing them in a very vulnerable spot.
“Stop where you are and state your business!” a man’s voice growled from somewhere in the brush just on the other side of the gently rolling waters.
“Just a pair of travelers,” Kevin called out in response, making it a point of raising his hands to show he was unarmed. Besides, whoever this was did not need to know that it was Catie who was the more dangerous of the two.
“And where you travelin’ from?”
The deep southern slur in the man’s voice reminded Kevin of the character from Deliverance that wore the cap and did those horrible things to poor Ned Beatty. There was something decidedly unfriendly sounding about this person.
“From out west, the Dakota territories,” Kevin answered after deciding that it really did not make a difference if he revealed that bit of information. It wasn’t like whoever this was could
It was about an hour before sunrise when Catie shook Kevin. “You need to wake up!”
Kevin batted her hand away and rolled over, but she was insistent. Finally, Kevin sat up and rubbed his eyes. They were in a hammock suspended about thirty feet above the ground. It was always best to be extra secure near settlements. That would be where you found the most zombie activity since they are drawn to sound.
It did not take him long to see what the reason was behind her waking him at such an ungodly hour. The settlement that made the top point in the triangle was on fire.
“That puts things on hold,” Kevin sighed.
“You think maybe the storm caused it? There was an awful lot of lightning last night.” Catie scrunched in close and pulled their sleeping bag up around her shoulders.
“Anything is possible.” Kevin knew that Catie didn’t believe that theory any more than he, but there was no use in getting all worked up over something they had no part in or control over.
As the sun rose, Kevin and Catie sat in the perch their hammock provided and scanned the area with binoculars. Nothing looked out of order. There were no large mobs of the undead or hints of roving bands that might be raiding the area.
“Still want to go down there?” Kevin asked as he slowly swept his gaze in a wide left-to-right pattern searching for anything that might be the cause of the fire that still burned in that village.
“Maybe they need you now more than ever,” Catie answered with grim determination.
Kevin was no fool. He knew why Catie was so behind this. He could even see her reasoning, but this felt too abrupt. There were plenty of smaller settlements that were not a world away from the place they had called home all these years. But then again, maybe that was precisely the point. They climbed down and rolled up their gear.
“Let’s get down there and see what is what,” Catie said as she slung her pack up and onto her shoulders, giving the straps a tug to cinch them up a bit.
The couple started down the hill and stopped when they reached the banks of a river. Just like the days when man first began to populate the Earth, settlements were usually next to a ready and clean water source.
The waterways had become much cleaner now that man was not dumping everything into them. Still, nobody was brave enough to risk not boiling the water first. Many of the major rivers near big cities were almost worse off now than before as the factories and such fell and sent all the toxins that remained into the water either directly or through runoff.
Still, out in what had been the sticks before the zombie apocalypse, things were noticeably cleaner. What was even more peculiar, Kevin could notice the difference in the smell of the air within an hour or so of leaving a camp or town. And, despite dismissing it at first as just his imagination, he could smell them before they arrived. To put it bluntly, humanity stunk.
They were just crossing the river at a flimsy rope bridge when a voice called out, freezing them in a very vulnerable spot.
“Stop where you are and state your business!” a man’s voice growled from somewhere in the brush just on the other side of the gently rolling waters.
“Just a pair of travelers,” Kevin called out in response, making it a point of raising his hands to show he was unarmed. Besides, whoever this was did not need to know that it was Catie who was the more dangerous of the two.
“And where you travelin’ from?”
The deep southern slur in the man’s voice reminded Kevin of the character from Deliverance that wore the cap and did those horrible things to poor Ned Beatty. There was something decidedly unfriendly sounding about this person.
“From out west, the Dakota territories,” Kevin answered after deciding that it really did not make a difference if he revealed that bit of information. It wasn’t like whoever this was could
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