Once nightfall arrived we locked up the house and barricaded the doors and all went to the second floor for the night and to talk.
"So what do we do now?" One of the many girls I'm less familiar with asked timidly.
The other girls seemed curious as well as we hadn't yet shared the plan that we already talked about yet. "Well so far the plan is to go to the quarry a couple hours drive from here, just outside Atlanta. It should have everything we need besides shelter and that can be found or built. That is just the stop gap though, I also have a farm well outside any city in the area that can be used as well."
After a few minutes of thinking about it I also added, "we may also want to hit a store that sells camping gear as well, sleeping bags and stuff, we never know when or how long we will need to rough it. It's obvious that the military is losing control of the infection and is only a matter of time before they carpet bomb the major cities such as Atlanta." They all looked horrified at the thought of that.
"How long until something like that could happen?!" One of them asked fearfully.
"I suppose it could be a week or so from now but it depends on how fast this spreads. I can already tell you that this is happening quite literally everywhere right now." I shrugged at that, what could I say? Olivia already informed them of everything she knew already so they have been processing it for a while now.
"I suppose it could be as long as a month, two if the military does a halfway decent job." I shrugged again. "Olivia, I just realized we never went to your house? Do you want to collect your stuff tomorrow?" She sighed and agreed, thanking me. Until then I gave her a tshirt and sweat pants from my drawer.
With that we decided to call it a night, with all the bottom floor doors barricaded we all found places to fall to sleep, I even let the girls have the beds and couches while I took a blow up mat and a pillow.
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When I woke up, I was surprisingly comfortable and warm and there was a weight on my chest that shouldn't be there. Eventually I managed to crack my eyes open to see silky brunette hair in my face that smelled of vanilla, quite lovely. I look further down at the girls face and it's Olivia. Wonder why she left the comfy bed for? I doubt she is jealous of her friend that we did 'it', she doesn't seem the type to cling either so maybe she just wanted company or wanted me to have company? Maybe a statement of intent? Something for later thought after I have had at least one cup of tea at least.
Also decided to use the stuff in the fridge to make breakfast for everyone before we leave the place instead of letting things go to waste. Figure everyone could use some good ol' bacon and eggs
Eventually one by one people started making their way downstairs starting with Olivia and then Hannah and the kids and everyone else.
"We need to talk about Judy" Hannah started after everyone finished eating.
"I know… I checked on her a few times last night and she isn't exactly doing very well. Not really sure what to do about her as I don't want to just.. you know? But also don't want her to turn while we're here. Suggestions?
"We could just ask her what she wants? We are leaving soon anyways, hours at most I assume?" Olivia lead off with everyone agreeing for the most part, some simply not interested in the conversation.
"Alrighty we can simply ask and go from there, not many other good choices anyways". I told them with a sigh and Hannah just nodded agreement. She was probably nervous about Judy being around her kids. I let Hannah deal with this since she is the one that knew Judy and not me. I would pull the trigger if needed but I don't really need to talk to her.
She ended up choosing to opt out. She asked for sleeping pills and once she was out, she didn't want to wake up as one of them. I would deal with it while Hannah held her hand until she fell to sleep peacefully. I felt kinda bad as I probably could have stopped this from being a thing if I actually cared enough to try but I really didn't want to go anywhere near the ex husband as he gave me bad vibes in the series.
I ended it seconds later with my sharpest knife to the temple after Hannah stepped out after my urging. She didn't need to see that anyways.
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After that situation was taken care of we really needed another car or truck and I knew just where to find one with a set of keys and hopefully a few other weapons. Mike palmers home, he was the prepper sort I think.
With that in mind I brought it up to the group. Hannah was obviously weary of going anywhere near the house her ex probably died in but didn't seem to care much other than being afraid walkers were inside and the rest were indifferent since I'd popped most if not all of them already.
With that decided we packed everything up into the vehicles, this time I'm simply wearing a tshirt and cargo shorts as fuck sweating in this heat and humidity. I simply duck taped two magazines together for my rifle so that I can just flip them around to reload and attached my pistol holster to my belt also with a magazine holder that holds two spare mags with a few extra magazines for it in my cargo pants as if I'm clearing houses I'd rather use a pistol anyways personally.
I decided to clear it alone but asked the others to wait outside so that nothing comes in after me. I'm pretty sure there is only one or two of them in the house at this point and probably in the basement at that. So that's where I start. I bang the butt of my knife into the wall with my gun pointed in front of me into the basement and I hear moaning a few seconds later. I also had my flashlight attached to my pistol and turned on so that I could see because I'm not an idiot who goes into dark places blindly. And there I see him, Andrew just laying there trying to get up but mostly eaten. I also see mikes body with his head blown off. Awesome.
I never really paid attention to the torn apart timeline, but I'm aware that what it played wasn't chronological and that was making it annoying to predict shit. I'm glad though that mike was already dealt with, I took out the brats days ago and mike got his wife earlier.
With that done I decided to clear the rest of the house quickly. I checked all the rooms and the nooks and crannies. Once done I called to the others to enter and close the door behind them.
"Alrighty, house is clean. Or at least undead free? Whatever. I got the keys but since we're here might as well take any supplies, no need to travel with an empty truck bed." I tell them with a shrug. They quickly agreed as nobody actually wanted to go hungry anytime soon.
Yup this dude was some kind of prepper. At least the basic variety. A bunch of cases of water and a lot of canned food. I also managed to grab the pistol and the shotgun already as well as the ammo that was in his gun safe still. Not a massive amount, just a few hundred rounds for the handgun and a few dozen shells for the shotgun. A poor mana prepper for sure.
I also grabbed all the axes and knives from the basement as he seemed to have a collection. Don't know why but they could be useful somehow either for firewood or weapons. Also grabbed all his camping gear as he had a large tent and a bunch of sleeping bags. "Alright ladies, y'all ready? I think we got everything reasonable. The next question is do we need a fourth vehicle? I assume Hannah and the kids want to be in one vehicle. I can take two in mine." I notice Desiree and Olivia both move closer to me at that. "That puts 5 in the car unless we can squeeze another person in the second truck?"
"Let's get another car for comfort if nothing else…" Emily added her opinion. I just shrugged and agreed. "How about that Chevrolet in the road? Seemed in good condition." Some looked happy, it really did seem like a nice car to me. I'd totally drive it but I wanted the storage capacity of the truck personally.
"Alrighty we have a plan. I guess the next question is do we try to ask anyone else if they want to come with us? There have to still be people holding up in their homes in the area. Im torn on if we should go through the effort, up to y'all!" I said with a cheer at the end removing myself from responsibility of deciding. Some of them gave me dirty looks.
"Hey I just don't want to get shot for approaching somebody's house or something crazy." I tell them with a shrug. "Im all for safe options, I also don't know anyone in the neighborhood." I add a second later.
"Well the phones have been down since this morning at least so there's no calling anybody. So that sucks." Taylor added as an afterthought.
"Either way we should make a decision quickly." Olivia chimes in.