Winter's Salvation (31 page)

             
Everyone’s head turned to see how fast it was coming down the street.  From the direction of the way they came, a skinny male, covered with crimson blood from it’s last victim, came running up the middle of the street and as soon as their attention was turned on the runner it let out a shriek that bounced off all the store front windows, echoing from every direction, sounding as if there were multiple undead running from all directions. 

             
The driver realized there were four undead making their way toward them and would soon be on them with another dozen moving between the cars on the street catching up quickly.  He pressed down on the gas and floored the red truck toward the frenzied undead, to make a little bit of distance between them and the runner.  The bloody ghoul ran toward the truck as if to attack it.  It ran wildly ripping at the air with its torn button up shirt waving behind it as if it were a small cape.  The truck collided with the zombie sending black tar like blood splattering across the windshield, when its head smashed on the hood of the truck.  The truck skidded to a stop and the ghoul was sent flying back and tumbling head over heals down the road.  The windshield wipers were in high gear, as the driver tried to clean the windows, but only managed to smear the ghoul’s thick blood evenly across the window.                     

             
Mike ran to the two traveling down the street and Jay ran toward the two from the ally.  Joey stutter stepped, but ran behind Jay.  Eric looked at both and then to the truck.  Black blood was being thrown from the sides of the windshield in a mixture of window cleaning solution and blood and then he saw the undead’s roll stop in the middle of the street.  The ghoul rolled to its knees purposely, as if it were an acrobat and then stepped forward into a full blown sprint back toward the truck.  When it looked up and broke into a sprint, Eric could see, the ghouls forehead was smashed in and black blood poured from the gash and down over its face. 

             
Ronny had no idea the zombie was back on its feet because the thick blood blocked his vision.  Eric sprinted toward the truck hollering for him to back up.  The undead ran to the driver’s side and reached into the window grabbing at Ronny.  The truck started to drift forward as the crazed creature tried to pull him from the window.  Eric ran toward the creature, but the truck was drifting away from him.  He switched his grip on the axe and was preparing for an awkward swing, when the ghoul spotted him and turned its attention on Eric. 

             
With a sharp scream it let go of the Ronny and ran at Eric in mid off handed swing.  The axe’s neck just short of the blade connected with the zombie’s head, knocking it sideways into the red truck, but it continued forward toward him.       

             
Eric stepped to his left, but not fast enough before the ghoul grabbed hold of his shirt.    The zombie was incredibly strong and pulled him toward his gaping maw.  The wooden handle was thrust into its mouth.  It bit down and teeth mixed with blood fell from its lips and the axe.  Eric was pulling back and as the ghoul pulled him close he was able to side step and create a small space between them.  Eric’s back was now toward the truck and he pulled the axe handle from its mouth and pushed the axe head under its chin.  The zombie pushed forward and Eric felt the butt of the weapon smash against the red truck.  The weapon created a barrier between them, but the ghoul pulled at his clothing and Eric ducked his head sliding out from his shirt. 

             
The frantic ghoul reached and clawed at Eric, but the axe kept it just out of reach.  Eric pressed himself against the truck and held onto the handle keeping the head against its neck.  He pressed against the truck, as if he were trying to mold into the Ford.  The wide curved axe head and long hammer end stopped the zombie from getting around the barrier. Eric focused on keeping his weapon straight and level with the undead’s neck.  He turned to Ronny just in time to see him make his way out of the passenger side door and run from the fight. 

             
Eric screamed for him.  He screamed for him to come back and help, but he ran down the street in the direction of the village, away from the other battles.  The zombie snapped its mouth and screamed in frustration, but as the butt of the axe dented in the metal panels of the truck the tips of its fingers started to scrape at Eric’s face.  Just as the ghoul was able to paw at Eric, off in the distance he could see Jay making a wide turn behind the undead. 

             
Eric turned his head and pressed the side of his face against the truck as the cold wet and sticky finger tips of the ghoul scrape his cheek.  Jay ran up behind the frantic zombie and imbedded the end of his machete into the base of its neck, severing it’s spine, paralyzing it immediately.  Eric felt the axe head get forced down and he lost his grip on the handle, letting it fall to his feet.  

             
Jay looked at Ronny running from the fight.  “It looks like his ankle is a lot better.”                          

**********

             
Days turned into weeks and those weeks turned into a month or more.  The atmosphere of the village began to change.  Eric was welcomed into Jay’s crew and now running his own missions for scavenging materials, gas and food.  Naomi was able to maintain control of her class room just as long as Dan stayed on the other side of the village and as far away from her as possible. 

             
Eric managed to convince Mike to build a new set of staging next to the garage that overlooked the vehicles and even influenced him to build a shelter on top of it big enough for Eric and the other three to live in.  Eric fit perfectly into Jay’s crew and with the extra set of hands, began making some improvements to the motor pool.  First thing he did was change the muffler and made adjustments to the red Ford to make it quieter, the second thing he wanted to do and with Mikes help, made a wind powered generator.  This powered a few car alternators they picked up on the way that charged a battery bank and provided power for all of the motor pools tools and the roach coach. 

             
With the temperature beginning to drop in the village, Eric and his crew had to start looking for other items in the houses and grocery stores they raided.  They began to look for warmer clothing which was a challenge because when the world as they knew it ended, the overall temperature was warmer, so the summer clothing was beginning to be put out on shelves.  They began to look in people’s closets and began to search through plastic bins in garages for thick coats, boots and blankets.  One thing they began to collect and store was children’s toys.  They believed they were in October and Christmas was something every child looked forward to, so they were asked by many of the parents of the village if they could look for specific items their children wanted before the end of civilization as they once knew it ended.

             
The colder temperatures got a lot of the crew looking for covered vehicles.  Jay’s crew put a cover on the bed of the red pickup, but one trip in the back and being in the cramped bent over position for any length of time, led to some hurt backs and some not too happy scavengers.  The answer to that was to find something bigger.  Eric found and brought back a cream colored Ford Explorer SUV.  The Explorer was large enough for the crew to pile in and get out of if they needed to.  The vehicle was big and strong enough to run over a few undead without risking too much damage, but the best thing about the Explorer was that it had heat.  After the cream colored vehicle was welcomed into the village more people wanted to work with the motor pool just for a little time in any of the vehicles, just to sit in a little bit of warmth. 

**********

              Naomi taught her class from a series of school text books and a few added small black boards the scavengers happened to find on one of their expeditions.  She had a system in place for teaching each age group of children.  The younger children eleven to thirteen were now working on basic math that most of them were somewhat familiar with, fractions and decimals and the fourteen through sixteen were working on beginner’s algebra. 

             
She carefully thought about the math problem she wrote on the black board and paused slightly after questioning herself.  Naomi was not a teacher, but taking this position made her feel as if she was needed again and she began to find it rewarding.  That was until she started entering the higher leveled math.  As the math became tougher and more complex the older children started to fight what they were learning.     

             
The tallest and always the best dressed teenager asked.  “Why do we have to learn this?”  Michael is sixteen and the oldest kid in the class.  He has blond hair, fair skin and always managed to get the newest clothes whenever the village went on a scavenge.  He was adopted by a family whose father ran his own scavenger group, so whenever he went out, Michael always managed to get the newest and best items.  He doesn’t attend class everyday and when he does he generally doesn’t stay the entire time.  Naomi dreaded when she saw Michael sitting in the back because he never has anything constructive to add to the group and always creates a distraction.  Today he wore a dark blue button up shirt that was very wrinkled, but clean and a brand new pair of blue jeans.       

             
Before the zombies began walking and destroying everything she ever knew, Naomi was working on becoming a loan officer with Trusted Funds bank and just started working with interest rates.  Most of the time she dealt with adding and subtracting and the vast majority of that was done by computer.  She punched in what was to be added or subtracted from an individual’s bank account, the computer told her what to put in or pull out and then she printed a receipt.  To this day she still had a hard time performing long subtraction problems by hand.  

             
“Because someone is going to have to start this world over again and you may, just find a reason to know this.”  She was annoyed by the question because she thought about that very same question and couldn’t truly think of an answer that didn’t begin with,
“If you were creating a rocket ship or were working on a nuclear reactor.”

             
The older group fought the point of learning a math that they believed they would never have a purpose for and Naomi had a hard time persuading them otherwise, but because she had already started she was not going to let them persuade her not to continue.  She spent many hours scrolling the text Victoria had given her, under a flash light late at night studying the math she would teach the next day, but found her best resource was Sam and Drew.  It was at this point, after that question, she decided this would be the last time she teaches algebra. 

             
“Why aren’t we learning how to build fires or find shelter?” Asked Michael, “That’s the stuff we should be learning.”  He began to get a rise of agreement from the rest of the class.  “Who cares what X equals?  We should be learning a trade like welding or working on trucks.  This is stupid.” 

             
“How do you think we got engines and alternators and the ability to use hydraulics?  People used math.  They used the theories that we have today to create running working machinery.”  She began to raise her voice a little more than appropriate.  “These are the basics for creating and doing anything remotely intelligent.  What if you run out of welding wire?  Are you going to weld with just that thing?”  She waved her hand in the air referring to the welding stinger.  “You could create the new form of welding or find a new system for welding.  Or you could just help WoJo in his RV.  I’m sure he has some dead cats that need to be served. ” 

             
Michael was not one for being talked down to and insulted, especially in front of the kids that he believed were looking up to him.  He was the oldest and toughest and by far the Alpha.  “I don’t see the mechanics writing math problems to change the oil and I sure as hell don’t see the scavengers running out there thinking of the proper angle on how to get back to the village.”  He stood up from the log.  “This is bull shit!” 

             
“He’s right Ms. Naomi.”  A deep, but comforting voice boomed over the class.  Standing at the top of the hill behind them stood Elijah in his lumber jack flannel shirt. 

             
A smile appeared over Michael’s face and he felt his chest stick out a little farther filling with pride.  His confidence exploded now that Elijah came in support over the time this woman was wasting. 

             
“We are obviously not utilizing this young man’s ambition.  I’m going to take him from your class and put him to work in a respectful trade.”  Elijah nodded to Naomi after seeing the frustration on the teachers face. 

             
The rest of the children in the class broke out into an uproar pleading for Elijah to take them as well.   

             
“No you all will sit and chew up everything Ms. Naomi is trying to feed into your brains.”            

             
As they left the other children stirred in their seats and quite confused, she had a hard time finding her rhythm after the interruption from Michael.  She began to return to the existing problem that was on the chalk board, but could not find her place to figure out the next step.  After spending a few minutes studying the equation she continued to draw a blank as Michael  was flooding her thoughts.  She erased the problem and wrote a new one on the dirty black board, but her motivation was not to be found.  “It is getting close to quitting time anyway, so why don’t we just pick up here tomorrow.”  Without hesitation every one of the children with the exception of Drew and Samantha stood and left the class.