We continued up the road at a fair clip, I kept at my easy going lope most of the time at night. Stop around day break, eat some breakfast, drift off for a few hours. Wake up, run for a couple hours, eat lunch and drift off again. After a light supper I would be ready to run for ten hours with stops for bathroom breaks. It was actually doing well with that routine, the girls would stay busy while I rested and keep an eye out for trouble.
Have to admit that part of my mind was always awake, the moment a sound out of the ordinary came out I was instantly alert. But I didn't tell them that, they needed to feel useful and get exercise as well.
"You hear that?" Charlie asked Tami. I was already awake and had been listening for the last five minutes or more. No birds, no bugs, nothing made a sound that should have been.
"I don't hear anything." Tami replied doubtfully.
"Remember what Dakota said, if all sound stops, it usually means something is out hunting." Charlie reminded her and I smiled to myself. Sounds like my teaching is being taken to heart. Charlie turned and began to move slowly towards me.
"I'm awake.." I whispered to her but didn't move. She didn't move to show I had spoken to her and just bent down near one of the bags as if it had been her intent all along.
"Do you know what it is?" she asked and I nodded.
"At least eight men, they're hiding in the tall grass over there behind Tami about fifty yards. I was letting them close in just in case they are being cautious." I told her slowly.
"Oww, something bit me!" Tami cried out and before I knew it Charlie jumped and yelped as well. Then I saw something flying at me and swatted it away. While I was looking at it I realized it was a dart just as a second one hit my thigh. In no time I felt the affects and faded into the darkness.
When I woke up nearly an hour and a half had passed by. The girls were gone and so was the camper. I did find my walking stick, apparently it didn't look like anything they wanted or cared about and simply left it. I could see the tracks of the trailer and from the indents, the girls were riding on it. The sun was just starting to hit the Horizon as it was setting into nightfall. I smiled to myself and began the easy going lope that would make up ground quickly on the men who took them.
Just as I crest the rise I could see the Stronghold below, it sat in a slight valley that from the road you would have never seen. The men were just arriving and the gate was opening for them, the girls were draped over the camper still unconscious though slightly stirring. I ran slowly around the Stronghold, only way in was through the Gate.
"Hello the Gate!" I called out. The voices inside had suddenly stopped their talking. I had been listening to them talk about how they had made off with some guys daughters. Just how old did they think I was?
"Who goes there?" came a shouted demand.
"You should know, you stole my Trailer and kidnapped my friends." I called back. I took the time to check the gate carefully, it was a heavy wood door, but I was betting that the lock was something basic like one or two boards that was braced sideways to keep the double doors closed.
"You must be mistaken, we found a trailer and the two young ladies asked if they could join us." a voice called back while another said something along the lines of how they should have killed me when I was unconscious and he's right, they should have...
"We did not, help us!" Tami cried out followed by the sound of a slap and her yelp as someone yelled at her to shut up. I narrowed my eyes at the gate, a head popped out over the top of the gate looking down at me. I pulled a dagger and threw it, it stuck in his throat and he fell to the ground before me. I casually walked up and pulled the knife and wiped the blood off on his clothes.
"Touch them again and I will kill everyone I find within these walls. Men, women and children as I am sure that your gene pool should never be allowed to flourish." I replied evenly as I stood back up.
"Like you can do anything from out there.." the same voice was calling out and suddenly stopped when the gates slammed open and the small post that had been holding it nearly exploded in a shower of wood splinters. I walked inside and swung my hands in an arc before my body. Six throwing knives flew out and struck six of the men who I had seen making their way into the gate. While they stood in shock, I popped the sheaths off the double bladed staff and continued to advance.
Others remained out of the way, their fear filled the air with their pungent stench. The other men who had attacked us seemed to be separate from the others in some way. The leader pulled out a sword and charged at me. I blocked two of his swings before countering and with one swipe both his legs were sliced behind his knees and he was flopping on the ground screaming in pain.
Four more ran at me with drawn weapons, why they didn't shoot with darts again or even a gun was beyond me. But it made things easier for me at this point. The first man had swung and I blocked only to swing the blades in reverse while spinning the staff around, the blade opened up his guts like an old suit. The next man I wasted no time with and simply jab straight forward through his heart. The third literally lost his head and the forth didn't fair much better.
The leader was still screaming his fool head off, which had the large number of Zombies to the West taking notice and moving in this direction. I figured we had maybe ten minutes. I kicked the man in the side of his head to shut him up.
"Well if you two are finished with your friends, I suggest we get going?" I said to Charlie and Tami. Both looked wide eyed at what I had just done but nodded quickly.
"Wait, we want to thank you for helping us, they have been terrorizing us ever sense we were stupid enough to let them in." a man was saying. I tested the air, it smelled like close to sixty people lived here, minus the morons.
"There were roughly a dozen men and you number what, around sixty. How could twelve over power sixty?" I asked while securing the camper. The Zombie's were definitely moving closer.
"We were.." he started saying while looking down and I frowned.
"Scared.." I supplied and he nodded. I looked around for a moment and got an idea what was going on.
"You allowed men to take what they wanted, when they wanted. Even your own Wives and Daughters.. you would have stood by and done nothing while they did whatever they wanted with these two and you think I would care to help a bunch of worthless people like you.." I asked and shook my head, "Not even on a good day and so far this day has sucked.."
"One more thing, your friend there.." I pointed at the unconscious leader, "..has alerted a band of Zombies of roughly twenty plus and they should be here within eight minutes. My advice, slip him and his friends outside the gate and barricade it and cover the blood on the ground then stay very quiet. Come morning they will be calmer with out the blood lust and someone can lead them away more easily. And with that, my hospitality has run dry.."
I strapped up the harness and started for the gate, no one even considered trying to stop me or even ask how I knew about the Zombie's. Instead they dragged the dead and wounded out of the gate and worked to secure it.
"Think they got it secured in time?" Charlie asked and I shrugged lightly.
"Do you care?" I asked her in reply. When she had to stop and think about it, I knew something inside her had changed. But after all she had been through, it may had changed well before this and this had just been that last push to reflect that change.
"Try to rest, we have a long ways to go." I said quietly. I was thankful we were far enough away that they didn't hear the leader screaming in the distance. I tuned it out and just kept going and keeping an eye out. From now on anyone trying to sneak up on us would pay a heavy toll if they were an enemy or not.
I listened as the road noise and the gentle bump slowly settled them both until they finally drifted off to sleep once again. Once they were out I let my body go, it seemed almost an automatic thing anymore. I didn't have to think about what I was doing, I could let my mind wander while my body maintained the constant speed. Now and then drifting a bit to skirt around zombies as they were recognized and then back on course once we were well past them. It was second nature now and even comfortable while at the same time I made peace with myself for doing what I knew to be right and true.
"Huh? What's wrong?" Charlie whispered still half a sleep. We were travelling through more farm lands now. The problem was that the cattle and horses were still stuck inside pastures. They were slowly starving so I started opening fences and gates as we were traveling. I made sure the fence material was bound up so no animals got caught up in them. Sadly those who had been inside pens or corals and could not escape had starved to death long ago.
"Just letting the animals run free so they can eat and drink." I assured her and began running once again. We were moving along the out skirts of a town called Lakeview. I hadn't been paying attention which State we were currently traveling through. It was a small Town but spread out pretty far within the Valley. It had once been a farming and ranching community, now it was just as dead and desolate as most of the others we had come across.
During our travels sense being ambushed, we had come across two other strongholds. One offered to adopt the girls, they had several couples who would love to have children. Both girls declined the offers. The second one went so far as to even ask what I would take in trade for them. I didn't kill them, but made it clear that I did not find their words to my liking.
"Aww the big soldier does have a heart after all.." Charlie sing songed at me. I rolled my eyes and muttered just loud enough for her to hear me.
